Re: hamburgers & jobs

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 4/18/06, Michael Perelman wrote:

> Dreschler, Laszlo. 1990. "A Note on the Concept of Services."
>    Review of Income and Wealth, Series 36, No. 3 (September): pp. 309-
>    17.
>
> 314: The definition of services is different on the expenditure
>    and the on the production accounts.  A television is purchased as
>    a consumption good.  On the production side, many services have
>    gone into the production of the television.
>
> In short, the distinction between products & services is very iffy.

I don't see that as "iffy." He's saying that labor ("labor services")
goes into producing TVs. But the TV is a good (as usually defined, not
in some moral sense). Just because it's made using services doesn't
make it "partly a service." It's still tangible.

TV broadcasts, on the other hand, are iffy. Originally, they were pure
services (non-tangible). But now they can be TIVOed or taped, making
them tangible.


--
Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence
of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles