Module One: Text Questions Essay

1. The financial choices we make impact our economy. Think of a recent item you purchased. What factors influenced your decision in making this purchase? Did this purchase impact your local economy? Explain why or why not. A recent item I purchased was a Patte Kode yesterday with a few friends after a SGA meeting. The factors that influenced me to buy that item were my hunger, the near location of the Haitian establishment to my school, the price, and past experience of buying the patty. By going with four friends I was able to introduce three out of the four to the restaurant in turn creating more business and consumers for the restaurant which impacted my local economy through the money that we spent. The money paid will be used to pay the workers which will also help the workers who work there to be consumers in our local economy. 2. In the lesson you learned that a market economy is where the prices of services and goods are determined through a free system. Tell what you think an advantage and disadvantage is of this type of economy. The advantages of a market economy is the ability for an individual to purchase any product that they wish through any company, the creation of competition which help to create either better quality products, cheaper products, or a mixture of both in turn giving consumers choices to choose from, and also the ability to create and own your own businesses if you wish. The disadvantages of such a system is limited government influence, because of limited government influence/ regulations workers rights are sometimes not taken into consideration and our natural resources and environment are depleted through lack of care and consideration because it’s all about making a profit. Government regulation is needed to keep businesses/ corporations in check. 3. Every day you hear on the news about different issues in the global economy. Have you recently experienced anything in your own community that was a factor from something that happened globally? Was this a good thing or bad? I haven’t experienced anything in my community from a global factor. But I have been noticing that the quarter is no longer worth what it used to be, I’m not sure if this is because of a global factor or just a national factor but no longer do I get what I used to for a quarter. Last week my family and I went washing at a local laundry matt, while we were removing our clothes  from the washer getting ready to placed them in the drier we realized that now instead of getting 10 minutes of drying time for one quarter it was now only 8 minutes. At first I didn’t think it was a major difference, I thought to myself, â€Å"Two minutes less oh well that’s not so bad†. It was until I put 75 cents into the machine I realized what a huge difference two minutes can be when multiplied. I was so annoyed because instead of putting three quarters in to dry my clothes I had to put four instead. In a way I felt cheated out of my quarter. In all with the drying of my clothes, my two sibling’s clothes, and my parent’s clothes we had to spend an extra $2- $2 that could have been spent on something else. 4. You are now familiar with government and how it plays a role in our economy. What are the advantages and disadvantages of governmental involvement? What changes would you make to improve government’s role? The advantages of governmental involvement in our economy are the regulations and limitations set for business- such as setting a standard for minimum wage, regulating working conditions, preventing the exploitation of workers, enforcement of workplace safety, setting pollution and environmental standards. I do not see any disadvantages with government involvement, governments are put into place to govern and protect their citizens, so in other words government involvement is a plus in our economic system because without it everything would be in turmoil. The changes I would make is increase government involvement in concerned with immigration – a few months ago I watched a documentary in class about the mistreatment of undocumented immigrants who worked at warehouses and factories in the U.S.- Governments should set more regulations for companies who like to hire undocumented immigrants as a source of cheap labor, to help improve working conditions for them and to prevent the exploitation of these immigrants. 5. In order for North America to operate as healthy economy, what do individuals need to do to contribute to the success of the country? How is our economy impacted when people make bad financial decisions? In order for North America to operate as healthy economy individual will need to be more finically conscience by making wise decisions in terms of how they spend and what they spend their money on. Also individuals need to be a part of the labor force to continue to be a part of the economy and help it keep it running smoothly  by being a consumer and paying taxes that will then help implement free services for citizens. A recession is the effect when people make bad financial decisions, an increase in national debt, the removal or cutting funding for social services, and increased unemployment rates.