2.1.3. Good Characteristics, or Goods.

D.1. Good Characteristics or Goods: 

I. Given a human Need, if there is a Useful Thing, and its Knowledge and Command of useful properties for gratifying the need resides with men facing that need, such a thing acquires Good Characters for their purpose, or it is a Good. 

II. Not only Humans face Needs and require Useful Things, they must also have the Knowledge and Control of these Useful Things sufficient for the satiation of their Needs and we call such a composite of Needs, Useful Things, Knowledge and Control, A Good Character of Things.

Axiomatic Derivation:

1. To use anything for any definite end implies awareness of useful properties, and a command over that thing. (This is implicit in the Useful Things).

2. The awareness of the Useful properties implies Knowledge. 

3. The command of the Useful properties implies Control. 

4. When a Need, Useful Things for that need, their Knowledge, and their Control exists with a human who faces that need, such a Useful Thing acquires a Good Character for that human since now it serves satiation of his or her needs.

5. The Need (N), Useful Thing (U), Knowledge (K), and Control (C) are mutually exclusive i.e. they can exist independent of each other. 

5.1. Therefore:

Existence of an N does not imply Existence of U, K, or C. 

Existence of a U does not imply Existence of N, K, or C. 

Existence of a K of U does not imply Existence of N, U, or C. 

Existence of a capacity to C the U does not imply Existence of N, U, or K. 

6. Observations:

6.1. It is pleasing logically to have each subset, or each of narrower concepts, independent of another within a superset, or broader concept. This is why I introduced a minor rephrase "a capacity to control". A capacity to control can exist independent of useful things. Thus, all N, U, K, and C now are mutually exclusive. However, this is not exact words of Menger. 

For instance, I need to go somewhere, and if say I also have command of a car, I imply both that there is a useful thing - a car - and that I have command of it. Thus, a command of an X implies an existence of the X. Since the command of a useful thing implies the existence of a useful thing, it means the two are not really mutually exclusive - command implies a useful thing. 

But we are interested in a case, following the aforementioned independence principle, where the command, knowledge, need, and a useful thing exist independently. However, the following rephrase solves this issue: I have the capacity to acquire and put to good use a useful thing. Let us simplify this long phrase to a capacity to control. This now can exist even when there is no useful thing. 

For an instance consider that I may have the capacity to acquire and put to good use a car, but there is no car for sale in the market at the moment. 

6.2. While a need may exist independent of our knowledge of it, it seems that conscious knowledge, nevertheless, inform us of our needs and the useful properties in any conscious activity. And it is true, also, that Useful properties of something depend on our Needs i.e. our Needs define what is useful and what not (we cannot satiate thirst by consumption of a dry food). These concepts require an elaboration which I shall endeavour at some subsequent time. 

Explanations:

E.1. Menger presents a four pointed procedure to identify anything around us to have Good Characters, or being a Good: 

1. A human Need exists. 
2. A Useful Thing for gratifying that human Need exists.
3. We have the Knowledge of the properties of this Useful Thing. 
4. We have sufficient Command of the Useful Thing for gratifying our Need. 

E.2. From Need we know that disturbances can have material or immaterial origins, likewise goods too can be material or immaterial. For instance, bread is a material good but a gesture of respect serving the esteem needs of an elderly is a human action, and has good characters but it is not of material composition. 

E.3. While need and useful properties are commonly thought as being the definition of Goods, two variables which Menger points to are of critical significance. These are:

a) Knowledge: Given the case of our hunger in the absence of bread, if we do not know how to bake it from the flour that we have, flour is stripped off from its Good character for us unless we are in company of someone who has this knowledge. Knowledge thus is equally important alongside need, and useful properties. 

Alternatively, in cases discussed in Need, and Useful Things, we can now see that if we only know how to bake a bread of wheat flour, only wheat flour is a Good. While other flours, say corn, barley, peas etc are Useful Things for hunger, they do not have a good character given our knowledge. 

b) Control: Given the above case, suppose we run out of flour in kitchen and the rest of flour is locked in a store room, and we have no permission of using the keys (only imagine the case for sake of an argument), our control of it is thus limited. With loss of control, while flour remains a Useful Thing, it is stripped off of its good character for the moment. We ask: What good use of this flour for us?

Alternatively, a person who has not learned how to derive a car has neither knowledge nor control of this machine, and shall have the contingency of using it to reach somewhere immediately, car has no good character while it is still useful. 

E.4. It is thus knowledge and control of a useful thing for gratifying our needs that transforms it into good, and it is most logical therefore that upon gratification of our needs, depreciation of useful properties, in forgetting uses of it, or in losing control the thing becomes a Non-Good (See 2.1.4).

Reference: Menger, Carl (2004). Principles of Economics, Online edition, The Mises Institute, 2004. (Chapter 01 page 52)