Civics Help?

Question

#1 Which of the Terms describes an economy in which prices form the basis for economic decisions?

a) Market

b) elastic Market

c) command

d) subsidy system

#2 What do economists use to test solutions to questions for which there are no obvious or easy answers?

a) Cost- benefit analyses

b) Trade- offs

c) Economic models

d) rational choices

If you could help me i would appreciate it .... I have been stuck on civics for the past 4 months and this is the longest it has taken me to finish a stupid book ( it is way HARDER then anything else i have done) THANK yOU

Answer 1

Question 1 is farily easy and a basic dictionary woudl give you the answer.

A Market economy (free market) economy is one in which the production and distrubution of goods take place in free markets. A basic supply and demand principle. In this style a producer decides what to produce, how much to produce and what to charge for the product. Of course the charge for the product affects how much of the product is produced.

A Command economy is also known as a planned economy in which the government tells the producers, how much to produce and how much that item can be sold for.

A subsidy is a way for the government to encourage the production or purchase of a particular product or service. (ie. a tax break for hybrid vehicle owners).

Given that knowledge I think you can answer the question yourself.

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As for question 2,

A cost-benefit analysis is a manner in which one would weigh the pros and cons (costs and benefits) of a given situation.

Trade offs is simply states as losing one item in gain of another. It states there is a positive and negative side to each decision, and that trade off is to be understood.

As with any type of model and economic model is a simplified way to demonstrate a complex process. (Think of a model home).

Rational choices in economic thought is the way of thinking each individual will mae the most rational choice. Rational choices are in actuality an assumption. It's similar to stating that most people would make the rational choice of making there car payment versus purchasing a large screen tv.

Again I have tried to explain each of your choice in a manner where you can make the proper choice while gaining an understanding.

I certaily hope this helped.

Answer 2

This question should have been posted to Education / Homework Help ... you need to learn how to post Yahoo Questions to a category where people hang out who are good in relevant topic.  Clue: Find the category then be in it when you post the question.

Second, your questions indicate to me that you are in a class learning theoretical stuff that is divored from contemporary reality ... this is not unusual.

History class says the world ended in the 1950's.

Computer Science class teaches only up until 10 years before Personal Computers were invented.

Looks like your Civics class is only teaching Economic theory until about 2 centuries ago.

Today there is no nation on the planet that has free pricing ... every nation controls their economy some way.

Think about it ... if any outfit selling any product could sell for any price they pleased, then they would want to maximize their profits, except people would buy where they could haggle for the lowest price ... that's a market system 1 A.  

The only place we find that is where the central government does not control the country, and NO OTHER organization (like religious police or gangs) controls the nation.

When there are no obvious ways to solve the problem, then the various people who might tackle the subject, THEY ARE NOT GOING TO AGREE WITH EACH OTHER so there is no obvious agreed upon way to solve the problem.  All of the above and none of the above, depending on who is doing the analysis.

The topic of the class may be "civics" but the questions are "economics" which has to do with   "capitalism"  "socialism" ie. how people buy & sell & "trade" products & services with each other.  There should be a class in "general commerce" that relates to how "business & industry" functions & how consumers can buy products, make change, know that what they are buying is safe quality.

It is a separate issue in what way is the goverment regulating free trade, such as with taxes, tarrifs, licensing, regulations, and what are the arguements pro & con.  For example, look at recent recalls of toys from China, food that caused people to get sick, Bird Flu now in North America, the Mumps epidemic.  There are tax breaks that reward companies for exporting jobs to other nations, then using slaves in their factories over there.

Civics is an understanding of the trade-offs between the conflicting policy decisions, principles of western civilization as opposed to the other kinds that are out there.

It is not a class that you can pass if you go in with no prior knowledge of the underpinnings.

You cannot understand government policy trade-offs if you first do not understand the basis of the economic systems being regulated.  Unfortunately many politicians are that way ... they learned law school stuff, then got elected, know nothing about commerce.

You cannot understand pros & cons of alternative systems of government regulations unless first you understand how things functioned under prior systems being replaced, and how the regulations are to be enforced.  Unfortunately we have political movements that try to replace something that works wth others based purely on religious or partisan views independent of the topics to be regulated.

At some point you need to learn the main theories of the main political parties and their sub-groups like conservatives & liberals, with respect to government oversight vs. where there should be free economy.  Also same stuff with major religious groups that seek changes in government policies, and know how to access census data, to see patterns of change of proportions of population in these various interests groups, so as to see which may be victorious.

To understand validity of their desires requires deep understanding of the parts of economy they trying to regulate, or change the regulations of.