It is impossible to study economics without knowledge of a certain category apparatus. One of the fundamental categories of this science is the economic good. In this article we will give a definition of this term, as well as talk about the different types of benefits.
We live in a world of needs, and these needs are endless - as soon as a person satisfies some, others of a higher level immediately arise. In the broad sense of the word, good is that which can satisfy the needs of a person of any kind: physiological, moral, mental, and so on. Since the economy studies the issues of exchange, an economic good is such a good that can be exchanged for another good on mutually beneficial terms for counterparties. If there is the possibility of exchange, then there is a certain price set under the influence of supply and demand. Based on the foregoing, the following definition can be given: economic benefits are any objects, processes, phenomena that can satisfy a particular human need, freely or limitedly exchanged in the market. An important characteristic is also the limited number of goods in comparison with human needs.
Surely many readers will now ask the question: how is the economic good different from the usual? We answer: it is all about the possibility of exchanging the good for other good. Thus, a person cannot receive an economic benefit for free - he must be given something in return. Note that, along with economic ones, there are also free benefits, such as sunlight, which satisfies the needs for lighting and heat, or air, which makes it possible to breathe. By definition, the supply of these goods is so great that the equilibrium price becomes zero. For example, an interesting situation occurs with water: being a gift from nature (you don’t have to pay anything to get drunk from a river), it becomes an economic good after purification, chlorination, filtration and delivery through a water supply. We also note that not everything that gets free is free: for example, a movie downloaded by a user through a torrent tracker is given to him for free, but formally it is the subject of the creator's exclusive copyright and can be officially distributed only for money.
Since the concept of “economic good” includes an almost unlimited list of all kinds of goods, services and intellectual property products , it is customary to classify them in some way. Classification according to the possibility of revealing value implies the separation of economic goods into benefits of obvious value (which is visible even before the purchase), benefits of hidden value (which can be determined only by purchasing a product), and benefits of trust, the value of which appears only some time after purchase and use. So, a good of obvious value can be any vegetable or fruit - by its appearance you can determine its quality even before acquiring. An example of a good with hidden value is a box of chocolates - before we pay its price and open it, we will not be able to determine the quality and value of its contents. A typical good of trust is medicines, the effect of which is manifested only after undergoing treatment. Also, economic benefits are classified by participation in the consumer basket, as well as the dependence of their consumption on the level of prices and income of the buyer. According to this classification, the essential goods, ordinary and status benefits are distinguished.
As you can see, the economic good is an object of economic science itself. Thus, the classical wording “..production, exchange and consumption of goods, services and ideas” can be replaced by “... production, exchange and consumption of economic goods”.