也说diminishing marginal utility:
Utility is the importance that we attach to things. We make choices on the basis of this importance. Indeed, in economic terms, "utility," "importance," and "value" are synonyms. We choose what is more important to us and give up what is less important. Utility is subjective.
Carl Menger (1840–1921) is the father of this subjective theory of value. He states, "value is therefore nothing inherent in goods, no property of them, but merely the importance that we first attribute to the satisfaction of our needs, that is, to our lives and well-being."
There is no economist — except those who adhere to the failed labor theory of value — who denies this proposition. However, it seems there are many who, along the way, have forgotten what Menger meant by "diminishing marginal utility."
The postulates of the subjective theory of value: (1) utility is always marginal, and (2) something has utility only if it satisfies a human end.
The law of diminishing marginal utility simply states that every additional unit of a homogeneous good or service is worth less than the previous unit. This law follows directly from the fact that we attach different value to different things, the fact that we choose more valuable things over less valuable things, and the fact that we exist in time. The first unit of a homogeneous good or service is the most valuable because we use it for the satisfaction of the most important end.
The second unit goes for satisfaction of the second most important end. Thus, the second unit is less valuable than the first unit. The third unit is less valuable than the second for the same reason, and so forth.
The law of diminishing marginal utility is "more than merely empirically demonstrable: it is irrefutably true."