The Market is in the Toilet

Commode typically means a crapper. I think of it that way - as a fancy word for toilet. Apparently it comes from a word for convenience or measure because of the low sorts of cabinets that would house the chamber pots when fancy people began shitting indoors.

There's gotta be an etymological connection to the word commodity. Usually a commodity is something that is basic - not yet processed - and is traded. I'm having fun imaging the reciprocal connection between the meanings of these two words derived from 'convenience.'

Commode:
As consumers (in the sense that we eat) we take food as raw materials and we process it. Our output goes in the commode for convenience and we have greatly reduced the value of the raw goods we processed. The byproducts of this operation - the energy we burn - is the desirable product. The rest is shit we have to dispose of.

Commodity:
The raw materials of the world are traded and transformed. Ultimately they are combined and processed in a way that adds value. Then they are re-sold. Often the production requires a whole lot of energy and the by-products are a bunch of shit we have to dispose of.