What Good do Goods Serve?

This is not about “long long time ago”, so those expecting to read yet another unasked-for episode of either B2B or UGLIE, may wish to wait a little more, or continue reading. As this too is a retelling of mythology. The mythology taught to us in our textbooks. Heck this is not even part of a series, just a rant.

Let me be upfront, technically I will be lying. In almost the same way we have been lied to as children, as well as we definitely “plan” not to lie to our children, but may!

1. We are told about a “truth”. Say A = B. We find it “true”, and somehow understand it. Happy. End of story.
2. No! If we don’t want to or need to go deep. Fine. But if we do go deeper, we find it was not the “whole” truth.
3. So we are told another “truth”. Say A = B + x.C, where x may or may not be Zero. We find it “truer”, and somehow understand it. Happy. End of story.
4. Go back to Step 2.

Let’s take up a fundae out of one the sciences. Say “economics”. let’s try and open up the “truth” like an onion. One layer this time. Not rushing in. Just easing in. Only one additional layer.

Game on? Really, what good do goods serve?

Goods and/or Services are items that offer some kind of value to the prospective consumers/ customers, hence paid for by their currency of choice, be it their likes on Facebook, or a share of their limited attention span or some other item of value supplied in barter, even actual government issued currencies.
Difference between Goods and Services (as told to me by my hapless teachers) is that Goods can be stored and Services cannot be stored.

TRUTH LEVEL [X]

Wait, how do you define storage? 
– So if you sell a long stemmed rose, and as it can be stored, hence you offer a Good. 
– If strangely you sell the privilege of smelling that same rose, which cannot be stored, hence you offer a Service.

But, the rose cannot be stored indefinitely, does it become a Service for an entity whose understanding of time is less granular than ours? And what about the smell? There are ways to store that (through chemical processes or through exceptionally good memory), is the smell a Good then?

Goods are tangibles or intangibles that can be possessed for a finite amount of time and hence offered for sale/rental/usage and most importantly returned (that offer some kind of value to the prospective consumers/ customers, hence paid for by their currency of choice).

Services is the name we use for transactions in which no physical goods are transferred from the seller to the buyer.  But (this part is fun), the benefits of such a service are held to be demonstrated by the buyer’s willingness to make the exchange.

TRUTH LEVEL [X+1]

In fact the current game is a goods-services continuum.

Confused? Rightly so. Let’s try one more. I told you, I will lie. Come on just one more.

It has been my everlasting belief that there are three types of offerings (items that offer some kind of value to the prospective consumers/ customers, hence paid for by their currency of choice):
1. Goods: Storable items whose ownership moves from seller to buyer. Make Once, Store Awhile. Sell Once. The Rose.
2. Services: Non-storable items whose benefit moves from seller to buyer. Silence on ownership, as difficult to prove. Make and Sell While You Make. The Smell of The Rose.
3. Content: Items whose benefit can be taken multiple times by same person, or by different persons at same/different times. Ownership rests with “seller” IF HE/SHE IS SMART! Make Once, Sell As Many Times As You Can. The Idea of The Rose.

TRUTH LEVEL [X+2]

So answering the question posed by the topic.

The only “good” Goods serve (for the purposes of this post) is to be the launchpad of a tentative exploration of what seemed like the basic tenet of economics, but end up as a test-case for us to stop trying to pass the definitions taught in textbooks unmolested. Do not be the “good” students! OK, do get to know the book-ish definitions. But try to see if the exceptions can be found or created, which can in turn help strengthen/ better our mental definitions.

Would love to hear from the readers if we can work on LEVEL [X+3] or beyond. Let’s try in the comments. If there is general agreement, I will update in the post, giving proper credit and “shout-out” to whoever helps in opening the onion’s layer.