CONSUMPTION (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. consumere)  , literally, the act of consuming or destroying . Thus the word is popularly applied to phthisis, a " wasting away " of the lungs due to tuberculosis (q.v.) . In economics the word has a special significance as a technical term . It has been defined as the destruction of utilities, and thus opposed to " production," which is the creation of utilities, a utility in this connexion being anything which satisfies a desire or serves a purpose . Consumption may be either productive or unproductive; productive where it is a means directly or indirectly to the satisfaction of any economic want, unproductive when it is devoted to pleasures or luxuries . Its place in the science of economics, and its close relation with production, are treated of in every text-book, but special reference may be made to W . Roscher, Nationalokonomie, 1883, and G . Schonberg, Handbuch d. polit . Okonomie, 189o-1891 .