29 Dec Economic systems

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Opportunity Cost (graded)

What is opportunity cost, and how is it different from accounting cost? Give an example of how the Principle of Opportunity Cost applies to your life. Think of a recent decision you made. It could be a decision as simple as whether to eat out or cook at home. Or, it could be a decision to quit your job and go back to school. What alternatives did you consider? How did you arrive at your final decision? Did you implicitly weigh marginal cost and marginal benefit? How does the concept of opportunity cost apply to production possibilities curve (PPC) analysis? How can we use PPC analysis to examine the opportunity cost of what we do?

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Economic systems (graded)

What are economic resources, and how does scarcity of resources apply to economic decisions? Think of a business firm you recently visited (such as Walmart, Home Depot, Red Lobster, Barnes & Noble, McDonald’s, etc.). What motivated the producers of each of the products in the store to make these and offer for sale? How did the producers decide on the best combination of resources to use for producing each product? Who made those resources available, and why? How does the market determine who will get the goods and services? Who decides whether these particular products should continue to be produced and offered for sale? How do these decisions differ between capitalist and socialist systems?