ПОЛЕЗНОСТЬ И ВРЕДНОСТЬ ЦИФРОВЫХ БЛАГ: ТЕОРЕТИКО-МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to criticize existing approaches to understanding the concept of marginal utility and to study the marginal utility of digital goods. A critical analysis of the concepts of benefits and utility in the works of K. Marx and K. Menger is carried out from the standpoint of the Hegelian method of cognition. It is concluded that the works of these authors use a rational approach (K. Marx's is more functional-rational, and K. Menger's is abstract-rational). Continuing to follow the Hegelian logic, the authors clarify the concept of utility from the point of view of negatively reasonable and positively reasonable approaches, considering not only the usefulness, but also the harmfulness of economic benefits. A study of the marginal usefulness of digital goods was conducted using a survey of the student audience. The differences in the marginal usefulness of digital goods of various functional classes – goods with fixed information content and products that are more related to services, representing a structural shell that interactively interacts with the user and allows the consumer to independently fill it with information and develop content - are substantiated. This forms various strategies for increasing the overall utility of the consumer – from increasing the number of goods consumed to self-restraint. Producers of digital goods can also use various scenarios for promoting information products – adapting the latter to more convenient use together and during any other activity, as well as introducing protective measures that prevent consumer care in the form of paid subscriptions, cumulative discounts and network effect. The phenomenon of underconsumption of digital goods is revealed, the tendency to increase the average duration of Internet use is explained. The reason for this is the low marginal utility of digital goods. The phenomenon of irrelevant knowledge has been revealed, so most users agree with the hygienic restrictions of using the Internet, but do not apply them to themselves, thereby postulating the usefulness of digital goods and not noticing the downside of usefulness – harmfulness.