1. Chapter 2 Section 1 Answering the Three Economic Questions
Economic Systems
Chapter 2 Section 1
Answering the Three Economic Questions

2. Economic Systems Objectives:
Identify the three key economic questions of what to produce, how to produce, and who consumes what is produced.
Analyze the societal values that determine how a country answers the three economic questions.
Explain the characteristics of traditional, command, and market economies and describe the societal values that influence them.

3. Economic Systems
Scarcity is that we cannot have all that we want or need.
In some places in the world, people cannot even meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter.
Scarcity forces societies and nations to answer some hard economic questions.
Different economic systems have evolved in response to the problem of scarcity.

4. Economic Systems
Economic System – the method used by a society to produce and distribute goods and services.
Which economic system a society employs depends on that society’s goals and values.

5. Economic Systems Three KEY Economic Questions:
Because economic resources are limited every society must answer three key economic questions.
1. What to produce?
2. How to produce?
3. For whom to produce?

6. Economic Systems 1. What goods and services should be produced?
Three KEY Economic Questions:
1. What goods and services should be produced?
> Individuals in every society must decide what to produce in order to satisfy society’s needs and wants.
> In today’s society – nations have to decide how much of their total resources to devote to national defense, education, public health, welfare, or consumer goods.
> Because of our limited resources, each production decision that a society must make comes at an opportunity cost.

7. Economic Systems 2. How should these goods and services be produced?
Three KEY Economic Questions:
2. How should these goods and services be produced?
> Next question is how to use our resources to produce goods and services.
> Do we produce electricity with oil, solar power, or nuclear power.
> Should we produce food on large corporation farms or on small family farms?
> Before the introduction of modern farming equipment - - it took 56 worker-hours to farm one acre of land (produced 15 bushels of wheat)…In today’s mechanical world - - it takes it takes 2.9 worker-hours to farm one acre of land (produce 40 bushels of wheat)

8. Economic Systems Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services? > By the 1990s, the top manufacturers in the US were launching 13 new products each day – filling the store shelves even more that they were.
> Stores on average carry 30,000 different items compared to 3,000 items some 50 years ago.
> How do we divide up all these goods that are produced each year?

9. Economic Systems Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services?
> Who gets to drive a luxury car
{Ferrari 430} and who can only afford a bus pass.

10. Economic Systems 3. Who consumers these goods and services?
Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services?
> Who attends a rap concert and who stays home?
Eric Clapton

11. Economic Systems 3. Who consumers these goods and services?
Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services?
> Who gets access to a good education and who has to start working after high school?

12. Economic Systems Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services?
> The answer to the questions of distribution is determined by how societies choose to distribute income.
> Factor payments – the income people receive for supplying factors of production – Land, Labor, Capital, or Entrepreneurship.
> How much should we pay the owners of the factors of production? How do we decide how much a particular piece of land is worth? How much do people in professions make?

13. Economic Systems Three KEY Economic Questions:
3. Who consumers these goods and services?
> Who gets to consume which goods and services lies at the very heart of the differences between economic systems today?

14. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
Different societies answer the three economic questions based on the importance they attach to various economic goals.
Command Economy: Cuba
Traditional The Free Enterprise:
Economy “Anything else is just a bus ride”
“Inuits”

15. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
1. Economic Efficiency
Most societies try to maximize their resources they have to work with. Making the most of the resources.
Lumber Coal Labor

16. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
2. Economic Freedom
Freedom from government intervention in the production and distribution of goods and services.
We value the opportunity to make our own choices in things like the job we want, the products/services we buy, and etc.

17. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
3. Economic Security and Predictability
We want an assurance that the goods and services will be available, payments will be made on time, and a safety net will protect individuals in times of economic disaster.
i.e. Unemployment Insurance; Disability Insurance; Social Security; and others

18. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
4. Economic Equity
Society must decide the best way to divide its economic pie.
What constitutes a fair share?
Should everyone get the same, or should one’s consumption depend on how much one produces?
How much should society provide for those who are unable or unwilling to produce?
Doctors earn more than garbage collectors
Professional athletes earn more than secretaries

19. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
5. Economic Growth and Innovation
A nation’s economy must grow for a nation to improve its standard of living.
Standard of Living is the level of economic prosperity.
If a country is growing, the economy has to grow in order to provide new jobs and income for people.

20. Economic Systems Economic Goals and Societal Values:
6. Additional Goals
A society may value goals in addition to those we have talked about in the previous slides.
Environmental protection, full employment, universal medical care, and other goals that may come to be in the future.

21. Economic Systems Economies and Values:
Four different economic systems have developed to address the three key economic questions.
Each system reflects a different prioritization of economic goals
It also reflects the values of the societies in which these systems are present.

22. Economic Systems Traditional Economies
They rely on habit, custom, and rituals to decide what to produce, how to produce it, and to whom to distribute it.
There is little room for (no) innovation or change.
The traditional economic system revolves around the family.
Work tends to be divided along gender lines.
Kids take up the occupation of their parents.
i.e If your family fish for a living, you will fish when you grow up.

23. Economic Systems Traditional Economies
These communities tend to stay relatively small and close.
They work to support the entire group instead of themselves.
Agricultural and hunting are the basics.

24. Economic Systems Market Economies
Economic decisions are made by individuals and are based on exchange or trade.
The choices made by individuals determine what gets made and how, as well as who consumes the goods and services.
These economies are also called free markets

25. Economic Systems Command Economies
In a centrally planned economy – the central government alone decides how to answer the three questions.
This is called Command Economies.

26. Economic Systems 4. Mixed Economies Most modern economies are mixed.
They are a market-based economic system in which the government plays a limited role.

27. Economic Systems REVIEW: 1. What is an economic system?
2. How do a traditional economy, a market economy, a command economy, and a mixed economy differ?
3. Why aren’t all people paid the same amount in factor payments for the resources they provide?
4. Why do governments provide safety nets for their citizens?
5. Give at least example of a traditional, a command, and a market economic system.