ECONOMIC ROLESChapter 3

There are three economic roles each person performs.

1) Consumer Rolea. These are the things that you decide to buy

2) Working Rolea. How productive we are as a worker

3) Citizen Rolea) These are the things that you pay taxes on or vote on to

collectively accomplish

Consumer Role• Individual buying decision have a great influence on our

Market Economy. We buy more than two thirds of all good and services produced.

• As a consumer you help business make decisions…How?• When you buy something you are telling the company that you like

what they are selling and I am willing to pay for it. This is know as

Demand.• Demand- Means the quantity of a product or service that

consumers are willing and able to buy at a particular price.

Consumer Role Cont.

• Demand helps determine supply. How?• Supply- The quantity of a product or service that

businesses are willing and able to provide and a particular price.• Suppliers will usually produce a product as long as it covers

the cost to operating the business.

Example: Dollar Menu at McD’s

Supply and Demand affect Prices.

Example: Prices go up for Christmas cards in Nov and Dec but go down in Jan. Why?

Example: Wedding supplies

• Competition keeps prices reasonable. Why?

Worker Role• Without our working role we would not be able to partake in

consumer role.• What is standard of living?

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

• Your working role will depend on your standard of living. Why?

• How can you improve your standard of living?• One way is to improve is to produce more as a worker.• Education• Training. What affects does this cause?• Add more workers. What is the affect to add more workers?

• (Labor worker) Productivity- Refers to the quality of a good that an average worker can produce in an hour

• Example: ProTrans International

Citizen Role• As a citizen, you pay taxes and the community uses these

taxes to provide public goods and services. • Examples:?

• Public Goods- are something needed by a community and provided by its government.

• Collective Decision making- as a citizen we decide collectively how some of our scarce resources will be used.

• Government can not supply all what the people want it to must make choices as to which service it can afford to provide.