Homework #1 Read pages 1-7 in the textbook.

What are the 3 main types of resources? Explain what each one is? Give an example for each?

The three main types of resources are human resources, natural resources, and capital resources. Human resources are labor and the workforce that describe people whose effort and skills go into the production of goods and services. One example of this is the workers who help produce goods such as phones in factories. Natural resources are materials obtained from the land, sea, and air. This includes soil, minerals, fish, wildlife, water, and timber. Economists may also consider land a valuable natural resource. Capital resources are machines, tools, and buildings that are used to produce goods and services which are called capital, capital goods, and capital resources. An example of capital resources are machines used to screw in the tiny screws to phones. They deteriorate over time, and have to be fixed.

Homework # 2 Read pages 8-17 in text

1. Explain the difference between a Traditional, Command and Market Economy?

A traditional economy is a self contained community, with the main occupation being farming, fishing, or herding. Family is the main organizational unit of economic life. Production of goods are often carried on using the same tools and techniques from past generations. People produce only enough goods to meet the needs of their family or slightly more for sale. A command economy controls everything about the goods and services, and it is decided by a central authority. The communist nations during the cold war had a command economy. The government is what owns most of the industry in command economics. A market economy is the opposite of the command economy. The major decisions are made by individuals and businesses who voluntarily exchange goods and services at certain prices.

2. What is the difference between Macroeconomics and Microeconomics?

Microeconomics is the study of the effects of economic forces on individual parts of the economy. This includes business firms, households, and workers. Macroeconomics is the study of the impact of changes on the economy as a whole.

Homework # 3 Textbook page 19 Matching column

1. Standard of Living: h, The quantity and quality of goods and services available to an individual or society

2. Good: g, A tangible item of value

3. Factor of Production: j, The bringing together of the factors of production

4. Economics: e, The study of how society use limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants

5. Capital Formation: d, An ingredient that goes into the production of a good or service

6. Entrepreneurship: f, The production of capital goods

7. Trade-off: i, The giving up of one thing to obtain something else

8. Marginalism: a, The evaluation of the usefulness of adding one more item in the production of a product or service

9. Economic Systems: c, The way our society answers the what how and who questions

10. Macroeconomics: b, The study of the forces affecting the economy as a whole

Homework # 4 Page 19-20 Answer the multiple choice question # 1-10

1. "All societies must economize because human wants are unlimited, but resources needed to satisfy these wants are limited." This statement means that society must?

   1. A, Use its resources in such a way that it gets the most out of them

2. Economists differentiate between goods and services. Which one of the following best illustrates a payment for a service?

   1. D, $10 for a haircut

3. The opportunity cost of an increase in the local police force is

   1. A, The government goods or services that people will give up in order for the government to hire additional police

4. 4."An individual's role in the economy is most likely determined at birth, and goods and services are produced according to time-honored methods." Which economic system fits this description?

   1. A, Traditional

5. 5. In which type of economic system are consumers most likely to determine what goods will be produced?

   6. A, Market economy

6. Micro economists study questions such as:

   1. D, How will the decisions made by firm X affect consumer demand for the products produced by that firm?

7. An economic model:

   1. D, Helps economists' understand economic activity and predict changes.

8. Each of the following is an example of currency, except a?

   1. C, Check for $5

9. Under what circumstances might peacock feathers be called "money"?

   1. C, If everyone accepted them in payment for goods and services

10. Money provides a "store of value" because it:

    1. C, May be saved for future use

Homework # 5

Find any recent article written about the economy. Write 2-3 paragraphs summarizing the article. Be prepared to speak about your homework in class on Friday. It may be useful to bring the article to class with you on Friday. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/08/drug-overdoses-cost-the-us-around-1-trillion-a-year-report-says.html

The title of the article is “Drug overdoses are costing the U.S. economy $1 trillion a year, government report estimates.” The initial point made in the article is that the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking published its final report on Tuesday which revealed that more than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the 12 months to June 2021. This is an increase of 30% from a year earlier. It was determined that almost two in three reported drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in the year to June 2021 were caused by synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl.

The Commission estimated that drug overdoses are now costing the U.S. around $1 trillion every year since people who could be contributing to the GDP and providing goods and services are passing away due to accidental or intentional overdoses. The cost arose from the lost productivity caused by early deaths, as well as health care and criminal justice costs. To combat this sudden increase in overdose deaths, OnPoint NYC has opened two supervised drug injection sites in Harlem and Washington Heights.

Homework Economic Ideologies

Choose any economic ideology (mentioned in class or not). In 2 paragraphs explain it. Say why you think it would be a good system. Give at least one drawback of using it.

Capitalism is largely characterized by the lack of government intervention, means of production by private firms and goods and services distributed according to the price mechanism. The government is not setting prices, and the private company is able to control a lot about their products such as scarcity and wages. This ideology provides incentives to be rich and encourages innovation since the individual and companies are prioritized. Since the individual is the main focus, companies are efficient and produce more goods and services. Consumer sovereignty is important in this ideology, as they have the freedom to choose products that suit their needs and desires. I think that capitalism is a good system because it strengthens the individual and their freedom. With consumer sovereignty being the main reason that companies have a chance at large profit, it fuels the idea that hard work leads to a chance at success, or the American Dream.

However, as the ideology prioritizes the companies rather than the government, they can gain monopoly over the specific goods which will lead to the exploitation of consumers. The companies can also pay lower wages to workers. The entire economic ideology may damage the environment as profit is prioritized. Additionally, the wealth distribution would also be skewed and lead to large inequalities between the company owners and the company workers.

Homework Adam Smith Read Pg 38-39

1. What was mercantilism? What about it was Smith critical of in his work?

Mercantilists believed that gold and silver were sources of wealth. They believed that the government should do everything they could to build up their nation's supply of the precious metals. The government enacted laws whose purpose was to enlarge their nations’ supply of gold and silver. These laws also limited the economic activity of their colonies in such a way that the net effect of trade was to build up the home country’s supply of silver and gold. Smith was critical in this doctrine since he believed that wealth sprang from the production of goods and services, not from the accumulation of gold and silver. Since gold and silver can not provide food, shelter, nor warmth, it is not an accurate measure of the true wealth of a nation. He said to measure the true wealth of a nation, we should look at the amount of goods and services that are available for each of its citizens, not the size of its treasury.

2. Explain Smith's "invisible hand" explanation of how capitalism works?

Smith’s explanation describes how business people would seek to make the greatest profits by turning out the greatest quantity of goods and services at the lowest possible prices. The low cost goods and services would benefit society as a whole. Business would be guided along a path of public goods or in other words was the pursuit of profits.

HW # 9 State of the Union

President Biden will make his first State of the Union Address on 3/1/22. Find the speech online and write a short essay on any economic topic he speaks about. Write 2-3 paragraphs about  the government policy or data he spoke of. Give your opinion of this.

President Biden makes it a point to support goods and services that are American. He promotes a bipartisan innovation act that would make record investments in emerging technologies and American manufacturing. During this section of his speech, he is also constantly comparing the American economy to the Chinese economy. China is investing more money into research and development than America, and Biden is stressing the importance of this bill, as it would level the playing field and promote American advancements and promote economic welfare. I find this interesting because as we established from the graphs we looked at in class, China's economy has been growing at an exponential rate, but is not really close to the American economy and the vast size of it. I am not entirely sure why Biden seems so worried about having China catch up to our economy since either way America and China have the largest economies in the world and they need each other to rely heavily on for goods and services.

Biden talks about the meat industry which interested me deeply. Small family farmers, and ranches were suffering because there are four basic meat packing facilities that have a tight grip on the meat packing industry. Prices increase, and many of the smaller farms can’t stay in business. The larger corporations are able to withstand the inflation and competition but smaller family farms aren’t able to withstand any of the spikes in price. Half a dozen companies raised their prices as much as 1,000% to make record profits through the exploitation of consumers and workers. President Biden announces that he will be having a crack down on American businesses that take advantage of the consumers. What surprised me the most was not that inflation was high and that businesses were exploiting workers and consumers. It was that there were only four meat packing facilities. The four companies expanded horizontally to put other smaller brands out of business, which was extremely illegal after what Roosevelt did with his horizontal integration for oil. It is good to hear that he is working to improve conditions and to put a stop to the increase in absurd meat prices.

HW # 10 Page 70 Matching Column # 1-10

1. Demand: e, the quantity of a product or service that would be purchased at a particular price

2. Demand Curve: d, the extent to which supply changes following a change in price

3. Supply: g, the quantity of a product or service offered for sale at a particular price

4. Supply Curve: i, the extent to which the dollar value of total spending changes following a change in price

5. Law of Demand: f, the idea that the quantity of a good or service demanded varies inversely with changes in price

6. Law of Supply: h, the idea that the quantity of a good or service supplied varies directly with its price

7. Marginal utility: j, the degree of satisfaction from each additional purchase of a product or service

8. Elasticity of Demand: c, a line on a graph that shows the number of a particular item that will be purchased at each price

9. Elasticity of Supply: b, a line on a graph that shows the number of a particular item that will be sold at each price

10. Market Price: a, the price at which the amount demanded of a good or service is equal to the quantity supplied

HW # 11 Pg 71 Multiple Choice 1-10

1. B

2. A

3. C

4. B

5. C

6. A

7. B

8. B

9. D

10. A

HW # 12 page 72 Think Critically # 3 and 4

#3) Customers will buy this clothing even though it smells of smoke because there is a supply of the item. The demand of the clothing already exists and the discounted price interests the consumer which is why the product is purchased even though it is damaged.

#4) The bakery would be able to increase prices the most since it is a daily good that falls under the category of food. Food is a necessity, which means that people would have to pay to buy food in order to live. People may not necessarily buy baked goods, but they would probably find it more acceptable to pay a high price for food since it’s a basic need.

page 72 Skills 1-7

#2) The supply curve.

#3) The extent to which the dollar value of total spending changes following a change in price is what the supply curve is. There is more supply of the cheaper products.

#5) The demand curve.

#6) The extent to which supply changes following a change in price is what a demand curve is. There is more demand for products that have higher prices, so there are more of the items available.

#7) Price $8 and quantity 30 is where equilibrium is reached.