The total income is the sum of 5 basic types

Since resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, people and societies must make choices about what they want most. Each choice involves costs. The value of time, money, goods and services given up in making a choice is called opportunity cost.

When people make a choice between two possible uses of their resources, they are making a tradeoff between them.

Then, society will understand the true costs of making one decision rather than another, and can make the decision that best fits its values and goals.

How can the concepts of opportunity costs and tradeoffs be used to help explain how the economy works? One way is to construct a simple plan of the economy called an economic model. The simple plan helps economists to analyse economic problems, seek solutions, and make comparisons between the economic model and the real world.

One of the most important choices a society makes is between producing capital goods and producing consumer goods. If a nation increases its production of consumer goods, its people will live better lives today. However, if a nation increases its produc­tion of capital goods, its people may live better in the future.

Since every economic decision requires a choice, economics is a study of tradeoffs. When you analyse each side of a tradeoff, you can make better decisions.

№3. Utility and prices.

Commodities of different kinds satisfy our wants in different ways. For example: food, car, medicine, books satisfy very different wants. This characteristic of satisfying a want is known in economics as “utility”. Utility and usefulness are different things. For example: a submarine may or may not be useful in time of peace, but it satisfy a want. Many nations want submarine. Economists say that utility is “the relationship between a consumer and a commodity”.

Utility varies between different people and different nations. For example: somebody can be a vegetarian and he will be rate the utility of vegetable very highly, while somebody who eats meat can rate the utility of meat very highly. And about nations: mountain-republic like Switzerland has little interest in submarines while maritime nations rate then very highly.

Utility varies is also in relation of time. For example: in wartime the utility of bombs and guns is high. Utility of the commodity is also depend from quantity. If paper is freely available, people will not be so much interested in buying too much of it. If there is an excess of paper, the relative demand for paper will go down.

Let’s speak about prices.

Individual cannot change the prices of the commodities he wants. But theoretical he can do it. For example, if he byes a lot of smth., let’s say a lot of oil, or somebody discover a lot of oil, the price of oil will change on the international market.

Now let’s speak about desire.

The consumer’s desire for a commodity tends to diminish (ди/миниш) as he buys more units of it. Economists call this tendency the Low of Diminishing Marginal Utility.

The interaction of buyers and sellers determines the prices for goods and services. If the price is too low, a shortage will develop and if the price is too high, a surplus will develop.

In a market economy, prices are the result of the needs of both buyers and sellers. The sellers will supply more goods at higher prices. The buyer will buy more goods at lower prices. Some prices is satisfactory to both buyers and sellers. This price is called an equilibrium price.

№4. Income and Spending.

Income is the money a person receives in exchange for work or property. There are five basic types of income:

1. Employee compensation is the income earned by working for others. It includes wages and fringe benefits such as health and accident insurance.

2. Proprietor compensation is the income that self-employed people earn.

3. Corporation profit is the income corporations have left after paying all the expenses.

4. Interest is the money received by people and corporations for depositing their money in savings account or lending it to others.

5. Rent is income from allowing others to use one's property temporarily.

The total income is the sum of 5 basic types.

One other type of income is a transfer payment - money one person or group gives to another, though the receiver has not provided a specific good or service. For example it can be gifts, inheri­tances, and aid to the poor are three examples of transfer payments.

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