Download Consumers - Springbank Community High School

Consumers
The Driving force of the Market
Economy
Consumers have the most
important role in a Market
Economy…Why?
Consumer Sovereignty
• Consumers are the monarchs because of
their power to buy goods and services
• If a producer is producing goods that are
not being bought the producer goes out of
business
Do consumers really have a
choice in the economy?
Advertising
Is a way for the producers to try to
generate a market for their
product
Remember the idea of unlimited
human wants and limited
resources?
Advertising works to create more
wants
Some Examples:
Positives
• Ads give us information
• Allow us to comparison shop
• Lower prices by uniting producers with
consumers
Critics say:
• Advertising is a way of manipulating consumers
into buying something that you did not need
• The purpose of advertising is to sell not to
educate, we never see in an ad the bad side
• Critics often point out that advertisements have
created a culture of dissatisfied people
• Help to propagate fads
Consumer issues
Who runs the economy?
Consumerism
• In simple terms a uniting of consumers to
boycott poor products
• Ralph Nader: Unsafe at any speed (1966)
– Looked at the Automotive industry and the
unsafe products that they were producing
– Is an example of someone looking for
Government intervention in the economy
Environmental Concerns
Limited Resources, why?
Earth from space
Adam Smith thought that the
economy needed constant growth,
which means more resources
Environmental problems:
• Pollution is one of the
major problems that
industrialized nations
face
• Not only from removal
of resources, but of
where to put our
waste
Problems:
• Major cities in our
world are becoming
unsafe to live in due
to the air pollution
• Acid rain destroys
crops and trees
Greenhouse effect
Environmental problems…:
• Global warming could
potentially cause
super storms
• CFCs have
deteriorated the
ozone layer over both
poles
• Renewable natural
resources have been
over exploited
(forests, fisheries)
At some point we have to say
STOP and start protecting the
environment
Where do industry and consumers
factor into this?