The maximization of the personal benefit might represent the ultimate goal for an economizing individual, yet the utility value derived by the use of a certain service or product follows a general set of rules, based on the principles of organizational behavior.
Utility value, expressed in terms of personal satisfaction, may be intense at first, when an individual faces complete lack or shortage of a certain product or service.
This situation is translated into higher monetary sacrifice, which is willing to be undertaken by that individual, in order to obtain the desired good. In economic terms, that would be interpreted as an increase in demand, resulting in higher commodity prices.
There should be a point, the timing of which depends on the production possibility curve of a certain industry or economy, where consumers would start sensing a feeling of repletion, leading them to the consideration that those certain products or services are now of less utility value to them.
Therefore, it is clearly understood that the concept of the utility value is totally subjective, depending on different circumstances faced by the individual, at particular instants.
An extreme example could be given by the comparison of the utility value of, let’s say a gallon of water at the Niagara Falls and the respective utility value in the middle of the Death Valley.
In the first case, where the said commodity exists in abundance, its utility value is very low, since access to the desired commodity is easy, free and almost in limitless quantities.
In the second case, though, the utility value of that valuable commodity of water would be the highest possible, a fact justified by its complete lack.
The immediate consequence would be that, the difference in utility value is expressed by extremely low or extremely high prices-depending on the case- for exactly the same commodity.
As a conclusion, it can be said that the utility value of a specific product or service depends on the intensity of the need, faced by an individual consumer or group of consumers, in order to obtain that product or service, in conjunction with the scarcity of the certain product or service.
