Talk:Commodity

Karl Marx invented commodities

Reading this article in its current form, you would be excused for thinking that Karl Marx invented commodities, or certainly its definition. It's a pretty good indication of Wikipedia's bias though. 89.8.26.93 (talk) 10:38, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Incorrect Link to Alternate-Language Article

The current revision of this article purports to be equivalent to the German Article for Waren, but that article instead describes commodities in the classical sense. Indeed, the German Ware is cognate with the English ware, which denotes articles for sale. In the sense of this Article, commodities are translated into German simply as Commodities. OzzyMuffin238 (talk) 12:58, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Not Primary Sense of Commodity

The current revision of this article is written as though it describes commodities in a general sense. But whenever I think of commodities, I scarcely think of fungibility and standardization: Instead, I think of things for sale; and I think it fairly safe to assume that general usage is likewise. This is well reflected, for example, by the article on commodification—i.e., the process of turning things into commodities by offering them for sale—and also by various historical sources,Template:EfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn including dictionaries and at least one encyclopedia. In fact, even modern dictionaries primarily define commodities thus.

In particular, Ricardo still calls these articles commodities even “when by no possible device their quantity can be augmented” by others, in such a manner as to grant “a monopoly price”Template:Rp—in other words, in such a manner as not to be fungible.

I think Wikipedia should reflect this common usage by redirecting “commodity” to the other article, thereby making it the main one, since the current revision may mislead unwitting users. With that, I would recommend renaming this article to something like “Fungible commodity,” and the other one to “Commodity (classical economics).” In the alternative, I might recommend redirecting both pages to a disambiguation page. At the very least, however, I would ask that this article and the other implement a hatnote at the top referring to each other: perhaps {{For|goods and services that are sold|Commodity (Marxism)}} here, and {{For|articles whose price has become standardized by fungibility|Commodity}} in the other.

Template:Notelist OzzyMuffin238 (talk) 15:28, 9 August 2024 (UTC)

I should add, perhaps, that the term also often signifies classes of commodity, i.e., classes of article on the market, rather than solely commodities as individual articles.Template:Efn

But the historical record makes it clear that a commodity—whether an individual article or a class of article—must, in fact, be on the market.Template:Notelist OzzyMuffin238 (talk) 19:46, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

Aside from Fungible commodity, perhaps this article could be renamed to Homogenous commodity,Template:Rp as distinguished from non-homogenous, heterogenous, or differentiated commodity;Template:Rp and as generally distinguished from things intended for sale.Template:EfnTemplate:Notelist OzzyMuffin238 (talk) 08:52, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

Principal Economic

topics Government policy 197.215.23.47 (talk) 23:10, 15 January 2025 (UTC)