Goods
Topic: Scarcity, Choice and Economic Systems · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Introduction (Microeconomics)"
Meaning
Goods are physical, tangible objects that satisfy people's wants and needs. "Tangible" means you can touch, see, store and carry them. Goods can be consumer items, such as food and clothes, or items used to make other things, such as machines and tools. Along with services, they are the output that every economy produces.
Example
A kilo of rice, a school bag, a mobile phone and a tractor are all goods. The rice and the bag satisfy a family's wants directly. The tractor helps a farmer produce more crops.
Don't confuse with
- Services: services are intangible. They cannot be touched or stored, for example a doctor's check-up or a teacher's lesson.
- Free goods vs economic goods: this split is about whether a good is scarce and carries a price, not whether it is tangible. Air in normal conditions is a free good. Bottled water is an economic good.