Utility and Prices
Our basic needs
simple, but our additional individual wants are often very complex. Commodities
of different kinds satisfy our wants in different ways. A banana, a bottle of
medicine and textbook satisfy very different wants.The banana cannot satisfy
the same wants as the textbook.
This
characteristics of satisfying a wants is known in economis as its ‘utilty’.
Utility, however, should not be confused with usefulness. For example, a
submarine may or may not be useful in time of peace, but it satisfies a want.
May nations want submarines. Economists say that utility determines ‘the
relationship between a consumer and a commodity’.
Utilty varies
between different people and between different nation. A vegetarian does not
want meat, but may rate the utilityof bananas very highly, while a meat-eater
may prefer steak. A mountain-repulic like Switzerland has little interest in
submarines, while maritime nations rate them highly.
Utility varies
not only in relation to individualtastes and to geography, but also in relation
to time. In wartime, the utility of bombs is high, and the utility of pianos is
low. Utility is therefore related to our decisions about priorities in
production-particularly in a centrally-planned economy The production of pianos
falls sharply in wartime.
The utility of a
commodity is also related to the quantity which is avaible to the consumer. If
paper is freely avaible, people will not be so interested in buying too much of
it. If there is an excess of paper, the relative demand for paper will go down.
We can say that the utility of a commodity therefore decreases as the
consumer’s stock of that commodity increases.
( A Rapid Course in English For Students of Economics; Utility and
Prices, Oxford University Press, Nairobi, 1973 )
