What is the product?

What is the product?

What is the product? which we want to express in this section.

A commodity is a foreign object;

First of all, it fulfills one of the human needs by means of its properties.

And secondly, the purpose of its production is not the direct consumption of the producer, but exchange with another product.

And this second characteristic of the commodity, which distinguishes it from the products of other forms of human production activities,

It is very important:

Commodity production is a direct result of social division of labor.

That is, without the division of social labor, there will be no product production.

And of course, it is very important to note that the opposite is not true.

In other words, it is possible to witness the social division of labor in a society without necessarily having commodity relations in that society.

Marx mentions primitive Indian societies as well as the division of labor in a factory, where labor is divided based on a certain order, as examples of this issue.

The importance of this view of Marx is revealed when we compare it with the view of “Adam Smith” who sees the division of labor as a result of “the characteristic desire of human nature” to exchange.

Marx’s view understands the commodity form of economic relations as only one of the possible forms of economic life.

And not its unique form that arises from “human nature”.

This approach means the existence of a historical beginning for the formation of commodity relations;

Something that has a decisive conflict with the eternal and eternal claim of this particular form of bio-economics.

Consumption value of goods

Goods must be able to satisfy the needs of people.

In other words, the consumption of goods is due to the properties contained in them, which are able to solve a specific need, physical or psychological, of humans.

The consumption value of the product is derived from the physical, chemical, etc. properties of each product based on which each product can satisfy the needs or needs of humans.

Recognizing and discovering the various properties of goods is a historical matter, and on the other hand, consumption value represents the relationship between the consumer and the goods.

But let’s remember that a product or a product that lacks consumption value will not be exchangeable.

And according to Marx, “use values are at the same time the material forces of exchange value.”

The same characteristics apply to services as well.

The relationship between value and consumption value

About the relationship between “value” and “use value”, it is necessary to remember a few points:

Something may have “use value” but not “value”;

All objects that are useful for humans without human work on them are included in this category:

Air, river water, natural pastures and the like.

On the other hand, if the object lacks “use value”, it necessarily lacks “value”.

even if labor was used to produce it;

The labor force used to produce a useless object is actually wasted, and according to Marx, even “that work is not considered work, and therefore it does not create any value.”

– Specialized publication of the society of official accountants

No. 53, Spring 1400