Goods and Services

Every living being has needs and wants. Neither humans nor animals can live without having their needs fulfilled. We need food to eat, a place to live in and clothes to wear. We also need doctors when we are sick, teachers to provide us with education and bankers to help us in financial matters. Because the needs and wants are important, every society has ways to get them fulfilled. In economics, some of our needs and wants fall into two categories. They are goods and services.

Goods are objects or things we can use or consume. Food, clothes, furniture, books, computers and everything else we use are goods. They are either made or grown. It is the duty of the manufacturers to produce goods to match the needs of people. These goods are sold to consumers and a profit is earned by the traders.

Services are actions. A service is work that someone provides for someone else. Fields like education, transportation, health and postal services come under this category. Some services are given free while some have to be paid for.

Sri Lanka, which is a developing country, provides free education and medical facilities to all its citizens. Such facilities are not available free of charge even in some first world countries.