Service as Relations of Goods Consumption (Political Economy Essay)

The article presents the main results of the research and author's interpretation of the essence of services. The consideration of theoretical problems of service is carried out on the basis of classical political economy and Marxism. It is noted that the works of scientists of other economic schools of the XVIII–XXI centuries have used the term “service” just nominally and superficially to serve their own scientific topics and cannot be used for the effective study of the essence of service. To develop his research, the author borrows from K. Marx the scienfic understanding of service as: a) an activity carried out by goods, b) an activity carried out by labor, which is perceived by him as an invitation of K. Marx to further deepen this idea. The author proves the fallacy of the position on the opposite of goods and services. The article elaborates and substantiates the thesis that chronologically and logically the initial point in the life of a service is a commodity. A commodity is a “pre-service”. The paper illustrates that the satisfaction of human needs is realized in the form of service: service is the relationship of consumption of goods. The article formulates the position that goods and services are mutually presupposed entities, reflecting the stage processes in the dialectical movement of economic relations from the production of goods to their consumption. It reveals that the economic content of material service and labor service represent the dynamics of one and the same substance. The author concludes that the service can be realized only with the interaction of two subjects: the service provider as the owner, the holder of useful properties and the service recipient as the consumer of utility: the service cannot be rendered if it is not received. The paper illustrates the identity of service and consumer production. The article confirms the idea that economic relations in the sphere of consumption as relations on rendering-receiving services of goods or labor, which are part of the supersystem of production relations, are designed for the production and reproduction of human personality.