that consumers buy. These things have to be made. The people who make the goods and provide the services sold by producers play an important role in the game of economics. We call these players workers.
Workers create goods and services.
Workers, however, are not a third group of economic players. When they make or provide goods and services, they act as producers. But when they purchase things, they act as consumers. Workers play a dual role. They are producers and consumers.
Workers as Consumers and Producers
Workers straddle the line between consumer and producer. Sometimes these two roles can be played simultaneously. For example, when a restaurant employee is sent out to buy potatoes, that worker is both a producer (someone making food) and a consumer (someone buying food).
Open Workers as Consumers and Producers. Sort the activities into the correct column to show when a worker is playing the role of a consumer, a producer, or both.
Businesses as Economic Players
When they make goods or provide services, workers play the role of producer. But it takes more than workers to offer those goods and services to consumers. For instance, a restaurant is more than just a group of workers who decide to make and serve food to people. A successful restaurant needs someone to apply for the appropriate permits, rent the building, hire employees, buy equipment, and oversee production.
When a person or a group of partners decides to undertake these tasks, they start a business. Businesses provide the goods and services the consumers want by hiring, organizing, and supplying workers. Nothing would get made without workers. But it is the task of businesses to get those things to the consumers who want them.
Business Activity
Businesses drive most economic activity. Without businesses, workers would not have anything to produce, and they would be unable to earn money. Without money, they could not play their other economic role as consumers.
When a new business opens, jobs are created for workers. Businesses are producers. But they also provide what the economy needs for consumption. They pay workers what they need to consume the goods and services offered by producers.
For example, when Dell Inc., a computer company, opened a factory in Austin, Texas, in the 1990s, the company provided thousands of jobs for workers in the area. The new workers then had money they could spend on goods and services. This boosted local businesses and created even more jobs in the area. In turn, this led to workers earning more money to spend on things such as Dell computers. From this example, can you see how a big business might help to circulate money within a community?
Government as an Economic Player
So far, you have seen that most economic decisions in the United States are made by individual consumers or businesses. But even under the American free-market system, the government of the United States still plays an important role in the economy. The U.S. government tries to maintain steady growth, keep prices stable, and provide public goods and services. An example of government action came in 2006, when the U.S. government helped stabilize the price of oil by ensuring that oil companies could not raise the price of gasoline above a certain limit. This enabled consumers to continue to afford and use gasoline.
This decision also affected the government, because it also buys a lot of gas. The government plays the role of consumer even while it is attempting to guide and benefit the economy.
Send My Bill to the Government
In many countries, the government plays a more active role in the economy. In Canada, the government provides universal healthcare to all its citizens using taxes paid by workers and businesses. In this case, the government plays the role of producer.
How Does the Government Play?
The government can fill the role of consumer as well as producer. After all, it takes goods and services to run the government. It is helpful, therefore, to think of the government as a very large, public business.
View How Does the Government Play?, then sort the activities into the correct column to show whether the government is playing the role of consumer or producer.
Playing Roles
Consumers and producers play important roles in economics. They decide what to buy or what to produce, and how much of it to buy or to produce. Other players in this game include workers, businesses, and government.
In a free-market system, people are free to decide what to buy. But those choices can be influenced by others. Sometimes people are influenced by family, friends, or advertisements. People are also influenced by what is available, how much it costs, and how much money they have. There are many things that can influence the decisions of consumers.
Producers are also affected by many influences. What do consumers want? What will they pay for those things? What kinds of advertisements help them decide what to buy? These and other questions influence what producers make. Questions about resources influence producers, as well. They need to know what resources are available for production, how much they cost, and how far away they are.
Who Has the Power?
Deciding what to buy seems simple. You choose what you want and pay someone for it. But the buying and selling of goods and services is much more complicated than that. Part of the reason lies in the fact that producers make so many different products. For consumers it can sometimes feel overwhelming. With so much to choose from, it can be hard to decide.
Why do producers make so much stuff? Producers want to sell their goods and services, but not everybody wants to buy the same things. If they did, restaurants would have one-item menus and electronics stores would have only one kind of television.
Consumers have the power to decide what to buy. Producers are aware of this. They make products and services based on what they think consumers will buy. This means producers must pay close attention to how consumers behave. By understanding what consumers have done with their money in the past, producers try to predict what they will be willing to buy in the future. Because of this, consumers have a great influence over the actions of producers. Consumers have a great deal of power over producers.
The Power of Producers
Consumers may make the final choice about what to buy, but that does not mean producers have no power of their own. The choices made by consumers are always limited by what is available. Consumers may want to buy something, but unless a producer makes it, they are out of luck.
Producers determine what is available, and this gives them economic power. For instance, when the quantity of a popular product is limited, consumers will often pay a higher price. For a variety of reasons, including the popularity or rarity of an item, consumers might buy even though the price is high, the quality is not as good, or the choices are limited.
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