Production is,thus,at the same time consumption,and consumption is at the same time production.Each is simultaneously its opposite.But an intermediary movement takes place between the two at the same time.
Production leads to consumption,for which it provides the material;consumption without production would have no object.But consumption also leads to production by providing for its products the subject for whom they are products.The product attains its final consummation in consumption.A railway on which no one travels (which is therefore not used up,not consumed)is potentially,but not actually,a railway.
Without production,there is no consumption;but without consumption,there is no production,either --since in that case production would be useless.Consumption produces production in two ways.
1.Because a product becomes a real product only through consumption.
For example,a dress really becomes a dress only by being worn,a house which is uninhabited is indeed not really a house --in other words,a product (as distinct from a simple natural object)manifest itself as a product,becomes a product,only in consumption.It is only consumption which,by destroying the product,gives it the finishing touch --for the product is a product not because it is materialized activity,but only in so far as it is an object for the active subject.
2.Because consumption creates the need for newproduction,and therefore provides production with the conceptual,intrinsically actuating reason for production,which is the precondition for production.Consumption furnishes the impulse to produce,as well as providing the object,which acts as the determining purpose of production.If it is evident that,externally,production supplies the object of production as a concept,an internal image,a need,a motive,a purpose.Consumption furnishes the object or production in a form that is still subjective.There is no production without a need,but consumption re-creates the need.
This is matched on the side of production.
1.By the fact that production supplies the material,the object of consumption.Consumption without an object is no consumption;in this respect,therefore,production creates,produces consumption.
2.But production provides not only the object of consumption,it also gives the consumption a distinct form,a character,a finish.
Just as consumption puts the finishing touch on the product as a product,so production puts the finishing touch to consumption.
The object is not simply an object in general,but a particular object which must be consumed in a particular way,a way determined by production.Hunger is hunger;but the hunger that is satisfied by cooked meat eaten with a knife and fork differs from hunger that devours raw meat with the help of hands,nails and teeth.Production this produces not only the object of consumption but also the mode of consumption,not only objectively but also subjectively.Production therefore creates the consumer.
3.Production not only provides the material to satisfy a need,but it also provides the need for the material.When consumption emerges from its original primitive crudeness and immediacy --and its remaining in that state would be due to the fact that production was still primitively crude --then it is itself,as a desire,brought about by the object.The need felt for the object is induced by the perception of the object.An objet d'artcreates a public that has artistic taste and is able to enjoy beauty --and the same can be said of any other product.
Production accordingly produces not only an object for the subject,but also a subject for the object.
Hence production produces consumption:
1.by providing the material of consumption;2.by determining the mode of consumption;
3.by creating in the consumer a need for the objects which it first presents as products.
It therefore produces the object of consumption,the mode of consumption and the urge to consume.Similarly,consumption produces the predispositionof the producer by positing him as a purposive requirement.
The identity of consumption and production has three aspects:
1.Direct identity:Production is consumption and consumption is production.Consumptive production and productive consumption.
Economists call both productive consumption,but they still make a distinction.The former figures in their work as reproduction,the latter as productive consumption.All investigations concerning the former are concerned with productive and unproductive labor,concerning the latter with productive and non-productive consumption.
2.Each appears as a means of the other,as being induced by it;this is called their mutual dependence;they are thus brought into mutual relation and appear to be indispensable to each other,but nevertheless remain extrinsic to each other.Production provides the material which is the external object of consumption,consumption provides the need --i.e.the internal object,the purpose of production.There is no consumption without production,and no production without consumption.This proposition appears in various forms in political economy.
