Economics

Chapter 2 PowerPoint

Guided Notes

The Three Economic Questions

  • Every society must answer three questions:
  • ______goods and services should be produced?
  • ______should these goods and services be produced?
  • ______consumes these goods and services?

Economics Goals

  • Societies answer the three economic questions based on their values.

Economics Goals
Making the most of resources
Freedom from government intervention in the production and distribution of goods and services
Assurance that goods and services will be available, payments will be made on time, and a safety net will protect individuals in times of economic disaster
Fair distribution of wealth
Innovation leads to economic growth, and economic growth leads to a higher standard of living
Societies pursue additional goals, such as environmental protection

Four Economic Systems

  • An economic system is the method used by a society to produce and distribute goods and services.
  • ______rely on habit, custom, or ritual to decide what to produce, how to produce it, and to whom to distribute it.
  • In a ______, the central government makes all decisions about the production and consumption of goods and services.
  • In a ______, economic decisions are made by individuals and are based on exchange, or trade.
  • ______are systems that combine tradition and the free market with limited government intervention.

Why Do Markets Exist?

  • Markets exist because none of us produces all the goods and services we require to satisfy our wants and needs.
  • A ______is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange goods and services.
  • ______is the concentration of the productive efforts of individuals and firms on a limited number of activities.

The Free Market Economy

  • In a ______, households and business firms use markets to exchange money and products. Households own the ______and consume goods and services.

The Market’s Self-Regulating Nature

  • In every transaction, the buyer and seller consider only their ______, or their own personal gain. Self-interest is the ______force in the free market.
  • Producers in a free market struggle for the dollars of consumers. This is known as competition, and is the regulating force of the free market.
  • The interaction of buyers and sellers, motivated by self-interest and regulated by competition, all happens without a central plan. This phenomenon is called “______.”

Advantages of the Free Market

  • ______- as a self-regulating system, a free market economy is efficient.
  • ______- because competition encourages innovation, free markets encourage growth.
  • ______- free market economies have the highest degree of economic freedom of any economic system.
  • ______- free markets offer a wider variety of goods and services than any other economic system.

Organization of Centrally Planned Economies

  • In a centrally planned economy, the government owns both ______. The government decides what to produce, how much to produce, and how much to charge.
  • ______is a social and political philosophy based on the belief that democratic means should be used to distribute wealth evenly throughout a society.
  • ______is a political system characterized by a centrally planned economy with all economic and political power resting in the hands of the government.

The Former Soviet Union

  • ______
  • In the Soviet Union, the government created large state-owned ______for most of the country’s agricultural production.
  • ______
  • Soviet planners favored heavy-industry production (such as ______), over the production of consumer goods.
  • ______
  • Consumer goods in the Soviet Union were ______and usually of poor quality.

Problems of a Centrally-Planned Economy

  • Centrally planned economies face problems of ______, ______, and diminishing ______

The Rise of Mixed Economies

  • Market economies, with all of their advantages, have certain drawbacks.
  • Limits of ______
  • Laissez-faire is the doctrine that government generally should not interfere in the marketplace.
  • Governments create laws protecting ______and ______. They also encourage innovation through ______.

Government’s Role in a Mixed Economy

  • In a mixed economy,
  • The government purchases ______, ______, and ______from households in the ______market, and
  • Purchases ______and ______in the ______market.

Comparing Mixed Economies

  • An economic system that permits the conduct of business with minimal government intervention is called ______. The degree of government involvement in the economy varies among nations.

Economics

Chapter 3 PowerPoint

Guided Notes

The Basic Principles of Free Enterprise

  • Several key characteristics make up the basic principles of free enterprise.
  • ______- The drive for improvement of material well-being.
  • ______- The ability for anyone to enter the marketplace.
  • ______- Equal rights to all.
  • ______- The right to control your possessions as you wish.
  • ______- The right to decide what agreements in which you want to take part.
  • ______- The right to decide what and when you want to buy and sell a product.
  • ______- The rivalry among sellers to attract consumers.

The Consumer’s Role

  • A fundamental purpose of the free enterprise system is to give consumers the ______to make their own economic choices.
  • Through their economic dealings with producers, consumers make their desires known. When ______products, they indicate to producers ______to produce and ______to make.
  • Consumers can also make their desires known by joining ______, which are private organizations that try to persuade public officials to vote according to the interests of the groups’ members.

The Government’s Role

  • Americans expect the government to ______them from potential problems that arise from the production of various products or the products themselves.
  • ______- Laws that require companies to provide consumers with important information about their products, such as ______of automobiles, ______of medication.
  • ______- Both state and federal governments’ involvement in concerns of the public as a whole, such as ______, ______.

Tracking Business Cycles

  • ______is the study of the behavior and decision making of entire economies.
  • A ______is a period of a macroeconomic ______followed by a period of ______.
  • One measure of a nation’s macroeconomy is ______. GDP is the ______value of ______goods and services produced in a particular economy.

Promoting Economic Strength

  • Policymakers pursue three main outcomes as they seek to stabilize the economy.
  • ______
  • One aim of federal economic policy is to ______for everyone who is able to work.
  • ______
  • For each generation of Americans to do better than previous ones, the economy must ______to provide additional goods and services.
  • ______
  • Stability gives ______, ______, and ______confidence in the economy and in our ______, promoting economic freedom and growth.

Encouraging Innovation

  • The government encourages the development of ______in several ways. Technology is the process used to produce a good or service.
  • ______fund many research and development projects. Also, new technology often evolves out of ______.
  • A ______gives the inventor of a new product the exclusive right to produce and sell it for ______.

Public Goods

  • A ______is a shared good or service for which it would be impractical to make consumers pay individually and to exclude nonpayers.
  • Public goods are funded by the public sector, the part of the economy that involves transactions of the government.
  • A ______is someone who would not choose to pay for a certain good or service, but who would get the benefits of it anyway if it is provided as a public good.

Market Failures

  • Would the free market ensure that roads are built everywhere they are needed?
  • It’s doubtful. Neither could individuals afford to pay for a freeway.
  • A ______is a situation in which the market, on its own, does not distribute resources efficiently.

Externalities

  • An ______is an economic side effect of a good or service that generates benefits or costs to someone other than the person deciding how much to produce or consume.
  • The building of a new dam and creation of a lake generates:
  • ______Externalities
  • A possible source of hydroelectric power
  • Swimming
  • Boating
  • Fishing
  • Lakefront views
  • ______Externalities
  • Loss of wildlife habitat due to flooding
  • Disruption of fish migration along the river
  • Overcrowding due to tourism
  • Noise from racing boats and other watercraft

The Poverty Problem

  • The ______is an income level below that which is needed to support families or households.
  • The poverty threshold is determined by the ______and is adjusted periodically.
  • ______is a general term that refers to government aid to the poor.

Redistribution Programs

  • ______are direct payments of money to eligible people.
  • ______(TANF) - This program allows individual states to decide how to best use federally provided funds.
  • ______- Social Security provides direct cash transfers of retirement income to the nation’s elderly and living expenses to the disabled.
  • ______- Unemployment compensation provides money to eligible workers who have lost their jobs.
  • ______- Workers’ compensation provides a cash transfer of state funds to employees injured while on the job.

Other Redistribution Programs

  • Besides cash transfers, other redistribution programs include:
  • ______- goods and services provided by the government for free or at greatly reduced prices.
  • ______- Health insurance is provided by the government for the elderly and disabled (______) and for poor people who are unemployed or are not covered by their employer’s insurance (______).
  • ______-Federal, state, and local governments all provide educational opportunities for the poor.