Your Economic RoleMr. Donecker

Giancarlo left his college campus right after his ten o’clock accounting class. He hurried to catch the bus so he would arrive at his part-time job on time. He works as a bank teller to earn money for college. He is also gaining work experience to go along with his accounting major. After work, he bought a new shirt that he needed. That evening, he reviewed in the newspaper issues to be decided in the next day’s election. In the morning before class, he went to the polling place to cast his vote for a school levy as well as a city council woman who showed support for environmental issues that Giancarlo believes are important. He may not be aware of it, but he performed three economic roles.

Can you identify the three roles?

Focus on Real Life

As a consumer: shirt (good) bus (service)

As a worker: bank teller (service)

As a citizen: voted

Were you right?

Consumer

Worker

Citizen

Your three economic roles•Yolanda uses the services of a carpet cleaner

•Rolf buys new tires for his car

•Wanda teaches at a local community college

•Andre is an aide in a hospital

•Stefan is a member of the school board

•Rita volunteers as a polling clerk

ALL YOUR DECISIONS AFFECT MORE THAN JUST YOU…

THEY AFFECT THE ECONOMY AS WELL!!

Consumers buy more than 2/3rds of all goods and services produced in our economy

Those buying decisions, by individuals, businesses, and the government, provide the answer for how we use our scarce resources

Consumers play a central role

What is a dollar vote?

Buying - or not buying - certain goods and services

“casting a vote” for or against the good/serv.

Tells company the demand for a product Quantity of a product or service that

consumers are willing and able to buy at a particular price

Dollar Vote

Dollar votes help to create demand

Demand helps determine supply

Demand and supply affect prices

Competition keeps prices reasonable

How your consumer role affects our economic system

How much are you willing to pay?

$0.25? $0.50? $0.75? $1.00? $1.25? $1.50? $1.75? $2.00?

Demand Curve P

ric

e

$2

$1.75

$1.50

$1.25

$1.00

$0.75

$0.50

$0.25

5 10 15 20 Quantity

Your vote counts!

Buying of iPhone 6sIncreases;

Production of iPhone 6s

Increases

Buying of Galaxy S6Decreases;

Price is reduced to clear inventories

Galaxy S7 is developed to replace

Galaxy S6

Supply is the quantity of a product or service that a business is willing and able to provide at a certain price

Demand determines Supply

The higher the demand, the higher the price Christmas cards in November and

December are more expensive than in January and February.

What are some other examples? The more the supply, the less demand

Diamonds are in high demand because they are a rare and precious stone

What are some other examples?

Demand and Supply affect prices

If my store offered blu-ray discs for $29.99 and the store down the street offered the same blu-ray discs for $24.99, which store would you buy from?

Competition keeps prices reasonable

Why might you buy from the store that charges more?

Businesses with comparable products must set their own prices based on their own costs of doing business.

What are some examples of businesses that could price fix?

Price fixing

Your job (salary) affects the amount of money you have to spend on needs/wants

Amount of needs/wants you can afford affects your standard of living

Productivity increases standard of living

Your role as a worker supports your role as consumer

Your Role as Worker

The way you live; measured by the kinds and quality of goods and services you can afford.

Standard of Living

The quantity of a good that an average worker can produce in an hour

Productivity

240,000 Model T’s a year

1901 2011

Produced over 5 million new cars

What has caused this advance in productivity?

Technology Varied and diverse work force More skilled workers

Productive workers increase the overall standard of living for a country

Productivity Cnt’d.

Some needs/wants are supplied through public goods

Things needed by a community and provided by its government

Your Role as a Citizen

Your role as a citizen allows you to get involved in helping to make these types of decisions

How?

Citizen