Use value

Common card · No. 451150

Use-value (German: Gebrauchswert; Nutzwert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose. For example, gold may be used as a means of exchange, as a decorative object, or one of the most efficient electrical conductors (and used extensively in electronic components for that reason). In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, any commodity has an exchange value and is a use-value — the former manifestly appearing as exchange-value in any exchange-relation in which bearers of commodities mutually alienate and appropriate each-others commodities on the market, it's foremost the proportion in which any commodity is exchangeable for any commodities, its form as the money form within money economies. Marx acknowledges that commodities being traded also have a general utility, implied by the fact...

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