Question

short answers:

In the history of human societies, when did the economy become a social institution distinct from the family and other institutions?

Name three technological revolutions that re-organized societal production and resulted in broad changes to many other dimensions of social life.

Name the three sectors of the economy. Give one example of production in each sector.

What are the three defining traits of capitalism?

What are the three defining traits of socialism?

What is welfare capitalism? How does Sweden illustrate the operation of this system?

How do capitalism and socialism differ in overall productivity?

What is a profession? What are four characteristics of professional work?

Define the concepts of "monopoly" and "oligopoly." Why are these economic patterns controversial?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) (1) A free-market economy began around the Palaeolithic age when goods were exchanged between people for other goods they needed. However, economics from the perspective of mercantilism began around the 16^th century when the economic status of a market or a nation was based on the trade value of the goods in their supply chain.

(2) The invention of ships helped boost trade between nations centuries ago. The Roman, Greek and older civilisation traded cotton, medicines, perfumes and spices through water routes. The second invention was the steam engine. This enabled seamless trade between far away regions. Also, this connected the suppliers and consumers in markets that were far away. The third modern day invention that re-organised societal production is in the field of communication. The wire and eventually the telephone and the cell phone helped facilitate business activity like never before.

(3) Communication sector – Google, AT&T and Apple are trade organisations that operate within the communication sector.

Transport sector – Steel industries, ford and Mazda are businesses that produce raw material and good that help connect faraway hubs of markets and production.

Fuel sector – Shell, Texaco and Exxon Mobil are examples of businesses that operate within this sector that functions as the bloodline for all trade.

(4) Minimal government intervention in the operations of the market.

A divide in the social class that forms the workers and the owners.

Profit is the main goal of a capitalist economy.

(5) Centralised economic planning without capital and labour markets.

Property is owned by the society. In other words, the working class would evenly distribute ownership of goods.

Common ownership or communal ownership of management and property.

(6) Sweden has employed a technique in their industrial sector that is known as welfare capitalism. This means that the capitalist structures are also responsible for providing welfare to the individuals who are a part of these organisations. For instance, the employees who work in a factory, would also acquire health insurance, accident claims, children’s education and other benefits from the company itself. Through the concept of welfare capitalism, a company can invest in their most important resource – the people.

(7) In a capitalist economy, shareholders own a part of the company and earn profits based on their ownership. In a socialist economy, the means of production are owned by the working class. It is argues that, because of this, the socialist economy has workers who are a lot more motivated as they are the ones who enjoy the profits. This is what affects the productivity of the capitalist and socialist economy.

(8) When a person is skilled in a particular field and is able to earn money from that particular skill, he becomes a professional in the field. The four basic characteristics of professional work are:

The person would need to be learned in the field.

The person would need to make money out of the profession.

The person should be assured of a professional career through continuous service in the society.

The person should be responsible to uphold a certain code of ethics within his/her profession.

(9) Monopoly is when there is a single producer is popular in the market; for instance, Google is one of the only large search engines present today. An oligopoly is when there are two or three major suppliers and the rest might me small marketers. For instance, Android, Google and iOS are the two major operating systems in the market of smartphone processors.

These economic patterns are controversial because these behemoth companies have extensive resources to thwart or buy out the small producers. This is when dissatisfied customers cannot really take their business to other companies and lack of competitors leads to complacency in these large corporations.