Consumption

CONSUMO. –

I. GENERAL NOTION

C. (actus consummandi) is the concluding act of the entire economic process, the end and object of all production, consisting in the definitive utilization of wealth.

In ordinary language, to consume means to wear away through use, to destroy little by little, to reduce to nothing, although in reality destruction is nothing other than a change of form and destruction of value, because following the change it has undergone, the thing has ceased to be useful. In economic language, on the other hand, the purpose of c. does not consist in destroying the value of wealth, but in deriving benefit from its utility, that is, in putting it to the use for which it was produced. C. might more properly be called utilization. Destruction, although often a necessary condition of c., is not essential and is rather an unpleasant consequence.

In relation to this possible condition, forms of wealth come to be classified differently. For some, which are subject to rapid deterioration, their c. requires the annihilation of value (e.g., milk). Others can be preserved for a longer or shorter period, but in c. undergo the same fate (e.g., wine). In others, c. is independent of deterioration (e.g., fabrics, works of art). Although here too there is gradual wear, this has no necessary connection with c.

II. VARIOUS TYPES OF C

With reference to the legal distinction between consumable and non-consumable things, some writers improperly speak of productive consumption and unproductive consumption: the former is consumption in name only, since it serves as a means to the end of a new production (e.g., the consumption of grapes for wine); the latter, which is what is meant here, serves as an end, since it tends toward the immediate (v. SPESE) or deferred satisfaction of our needs (v. RISPARMIO), through the complete annihilation of the utility of the consumed good. But here too unproductive consumption exists only in appearance, because through it life is given to the soul of every production: man.

Consumption is also distinguished according to its cause as voluntary and involuntary, and according to the consumer’s wealth as inferior, equal, or superior to the consumer’s income, consequently producing different effects in relation to the increase, preservation, and diminution of the corresponding estate.

Finally, consumption is distinguished as private and public, depending on whether it is carried out directly by private individuals or through public bodies (State, region, province, municipality).

This classification is connected with that of individual and collective needs: the former satisfied by individual economic activity, the latter by the economic activity of public bodies.

The latter distinction helps to determine in general the limits of public economics (in which the subject is the State) and private economics (in which the subject is the individual).

The extent of collective needs, and therefore of state functions, has not always been the same: from an individualistic conception, according to which the State should limit itself to safeguarding public order, one passes to a social conception, according to which the State should also concern itself with functions relating to the material and moral development of the members of society.

Here consumption is considered not in relation to public or fiscal economics (v. TRIBUTI), but in relation to social economics and ethics.

III. DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AMONG THE VARIOUS CONSUMERS

Classical economics maintains that the conduct of economic agents is determined exclusively by the utilitarian principle. The distribution of income among the various consumers is therefore also the result of choices made either by the individual, by the head of the family, or by the enterprise—choices which, together with the other economic forces, serve as self-regulating forces of the entire cycle. Since, therefore, the distribution of income among the various consumers is the result of entirely subjective choices, the manner in which this distribution normally takes place can be determined approximately.

In the last century, certain writers, such as Le Play, in his monographs, considered expenditures on food, clothing, housing, “comfort,” and amusements, examining the proportions in which they appeared in the budgets of the various classes of the population. Others, such as F. Engel, in his statistical works, sought to draw from sociological observation conclusions of a general nature, which may be summarized as follows:

1) The greater a family’s income, the smaller the percentage spent on food; 2) with regard to clothing, there is no complete agreement: Engel maintains that expenditure is proportional to income; others claim that it increases more than proportionally to income; 3) the percentage spent on housing, including rent, heating, and lighting, is almost constant at different income levels; 4) the percentage spent on “comfort” and pleasure increases considerably as income rises.

These are relative conclusions, which, if anything, have the value of indicating which goods must be increased for the greater well-being of humanity (housing and food), just as the utilitarian principle, when applied as an absolute criterion, and the alleged almost mechanical adjustment of production to consumption are relative. Otherwise, the almost periodic crises of overproduction could not be explained.

Moreover, although the motive of personal advantage generally appears in mass phenomena as the predominant factor, it cannot be accepted as the sole and exclusive norm governing the conduct of individual persons.

Above and beyond the economic laws stand the moral laws.
IV. C., ECONOMY AND ETHICS. — The use of material goods is in itself indifferent: its value depends on the end proposed by the person who makes use of them and on the sentiment by which he is animated, and virtue consists in the right measure.

The sphere of c. is subject to changes and progress. Nor should one seek a uniform and immutable measure of human needs, which vary in different periods and environments.

Among human needs are not only the concerns of material life: living, clothing oneself, having a home. Concern for religious and moral life is obligatory; the development of intellectual and artistic life, social relations, and decorum may be reasonable and may even impose themselves.

With this premise, c. must tend toward the rational and judicious use of goods, avoiding both sinful use and vain and sterile destruction.

C. must therefore meet the following conditions: 1) satisfy truly human desires in the best sense, and not in the degraded sense, of the word. Excesses in expenditure (which is the usual form of unproductive c. in our monetary economy) may range from squandering to extravagance, luxury (v.).

2) The c. of wealth must be rationally proportionate to need. This rule is violated through the use of goods that are too subject to irrational changes (v. MODA) or are also of little utility.

3) It is also necessary to avoid c. that cannot be carried out without resorting to credit, precisely in order to preserve the necessary proportion between c. and income. Indeed, one must consume less than one produces and spend less than one’s individual or collective purchasing power, out of regard for future needs (v. PREVIDENZA; RISPARMIO).

From time to time, account must be taken, besides the quantity of wealth available, of the various personal, family, professional, environmental, and other circumstances.

In determining his conduct, the economic subject must likewise avoid two opposite extremes: avarice and extravagance.

4) A sound economic criterion is to conduct expenses as far as possible collectively, by means of corporative associations, etc.

Collective and large-scale c. offers advantages similar to those of large enterprise and is a means of defending it against the excessive demands of producers and sellers. For this purpose, it will also be equitable to give representatives of consumers some place on the commissions or councils entrusted with regulating production and prices.

V. CONSUMPTION AND WELL-BEING

The extent and variations of consumption constitute an index, perhaps the most reliable and most direct, of the economic conditions and social well-being of a nation and a people; and also of its virtues and vices. Particularly indicative of the latter are expenditures on “comfort” and entertainments.

General wealth has greatly increased over the past century and a half. Statistics concerning the consumption of the principal foodstuffs per inhabitant confirm these conclusions.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that, taken as a whole, many people still do not possess a sufficient quantity of goods.

This observation, already made before the war, is confirmed and, in many parts of the world, aggravated today, after the Second World War. Leaving Europe aside, where the phenomenon is more than evident, a recent study of food consumption and eating habits in the Americas, undertaken to determine the quantity and quality of food generally consumed by the working class in the most important American states, such as the United States of North America, Canada, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, revealed that consumption is satisfactory in the first two states, but considerably less so in the other three, where deficiencies are found above all in the quality of the food and its nutritional value (cf. R. M. Woodbury, La consommation alimentaire et le mode d'alimentation dans les pays d'Amérique, in Revue internationale du travail, 46 [1942]). Housing and nutrition, therefore, must be improved almost everywhere (v. CASE POPOLARI; SCIENZA DELL'ALIMENTAZIONE). As regards backward or savage populations, they must gradually be raised to a standard of living that is more dignified and more moral.

These improvements can be achieved only through improved exchange and international relations and, within each nation, through a better distribution of wealth, increased production, and the development of practices of conservation, economy, and thrift.

VI. CONSUMPTION AND POPULATION

The relationship between production, consumption, and MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT (v.) has been the subject of special study, creating a kind of phobia regarding overpopulation.

Two great, enormously bloody wars undertook to demonstrate that the fears of Malthus and his followers were at least premature. Unfortunately, however, this gave the neo-Malthusians an opportunity for immoral propaganda concerning birth con-
trol (v. CONTROLLO delle), while measures that could, at least for the time being, resolve the crises arising from the distribution of consumers across the globe, such as emigration (v.) and colonization, are rather opposed out of sheer national selfishness.