Use value

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Use value (German: Gebrauchswert; Nutzwert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose. For Karl Marx's critique of political economy, any commodity has a value and a use-value — the former manifestly appearing as exchange-value in any exchange-relation in which bearers of commodities mutually alienate and appropriate each-others commodities on the market, it's foremost the proportion in which any commodity is exchangeable for any commodities, it's form as the money form within money economies. ^[1]

Marx acknowledges that commodities being traded also have a general utility, implied by the fact that people want them, but he argues that this by itself says nothing about the specific character of the economy in which they are produced and sold.