消费函数需要新定义

宋圭武

Consumption Function Needs New Definition

Song Guiwu

Consumption is one of the most important issues in economy, and consumption function is naturally one of the economics contents that need to be studied. Keynes first put forward the concept of consumption function. He believed that total consumption is a function of total income. Kuznets believed that long-term consumption is a fixed ratio of income, and in the long run, the average consumption tendency is generally stable. Smithers believed that in the short term, consumption is a function of current income, and the consumption level decreases with the increase of current income level, while the savings increase with the increase of current income level; in the long run, consumption is affected by many other factors besides income. Dusenberry believed that people's consumption exists the phenomenon of keeping up with each other, and at the same time, consumption also has a certain inertia. Friedman believed that people's consumption mainly depends on persistent income. Modigliani explained the consumption problem through the life cycle theory, and believed that consumers arrange their best consumption according to the life cycle. There are also some scholars who add rational expectation factors into the consumption function, and rational expectation has also become an important variable affecting consumption. And so on. In a word, there are two problems and deficiencies in the existing various consumption functions: one is to only consider the satisfaction of one's present consumption utility, without considering one's arrangement for the afterlife consumption utility; the other is to give more consideration to the consumption utility on the material level, without considering the utility on the spiritual level. The author believes that one's consumption function, in the aspect of consumption utility satisfaction, should not only consider the satisfaction of the present utility, but also consider the satisfaction of the afterlife utility, especially in some religious culture society, some of the people's consumption, and meet the afterlife utility is highly related, even more attention to the afterlife utility satisfaction; in addition, people's consumption is not only consider the satisfaction of material utility, but also consider the satisfaction of spiritual utility. In the aspect of consumption costs, it should be the sum of material costs and spiritual costs, not only consider the material costs. In addition, the consumption function also has: a person's material income and spiritual income, the two have a certain degree of marginal substitution problem, such as in the state of poverty, may be a person will more through the loss of spiritual income for material income, a person in the case of material affluence, may pay more attention to the pursuit of spiritual income, such as people often say, the granary is real and know etiquette, adequate clothing and food and know honor and disgrace, reflecting this situation; with the increase of income, may pay more attention to the relative utility of consumption, such as may produce some conspicuous consumption; and the material income has the law of diminishing marginal returns, in the spiritual income, there is also the law of diminishing marginal returns, for example, a person too much honor, inevitably in the increase of the same level of honor brought by the marginal spiritual income will decrease, unless the latter honor level is higher than the front honor level, it may increase the marginal returns; in a specific environment, there is also the problem of consumption alienation, that is, the consumption process negates the true value of consumption itself. (Author: Gansu Provincial Party School of the Communist Party of China (Gansu Administrative College) second-class professor)