Final exam Flashcards
consumerism
The modern form of consumption; came about largely because of the Industrial Revolution
Know what is used to help create new demand or new needs for products among consumers to help capitalism thrive
Advertising- turning something you want into something you need
Be able to define niche market; be able to identify a type of product that would best be classified as serving a niche market
specialized products and services for specialized markets. Things that not everybody needs or wants, but there is a market. Think luxury items. EX: fully loaded ferrari
Know what sort of organizations generated the backlash against the rise of consumerism in the places where it originated, as well as the places to which consumerism spread
Religion- think 7 deadly sins
Be able to identify the social interaction or relationship that consumerism is said to have helped “invent”
Dating
Layaway
Store would set aside product for you, you would make monthly payments on it and then after it is PAID IN FULL you get the product. Unlike credit cards, kind of the reverse of credit.
Know what company introduced financing for automobiles during the Great Depression, helping create the credit industry
General Motors
Know the concept that credit cards helped undermine, a concept that was strong in the days of saving for large purchases or layaway
Delayed Gratification
Be able to briefly explain why credit card companies and banks promoted credit cards; basically, what about credit cards made them major sources of income for those firms
bc they could charge high interest, it was a money earner.
Conspicuous consumption
consuming in ways as a social statement to others, especially their other Robber Baron peers. Carnegie and Rockefeller had a rivalry in terms of philanthropy.
Be able to define “affluenza”
dogged pursuit of more in the hopes it eventually makes you happy, accompanied by a perpetual cycle of discontent.
whose philosophy was neoclassical views on consumption
Jeremy Bentham
aspects of the neoclassical views on consumption
Traditional way of viewing consumption-People will maximize pleasure and minimize pain (As little amount of work and money)
Individual consumers are modeled after this mythical “homo economicus”- an omniscient being that knows all opportunities and cost, benefits, consequences
The neoclassical view holds that markets are always optimally efficient economically (and morally); internally consistent, but it has problems.
Problems with neoclassical views on consumption
- Lacks any historical or social context, meaning it doesn’t account for the social dimensions of consumption
- This is due to its representation of consumption as a purely individual act.
- Even when individuals act rationally to maximize utility, that can lead to collective irrationality or market failures; this happens when we reduce social problems to individual ones.
- not always optimally efficient economically and morally.
- Lack any historical or social context
- Failure is as a result of representing consumption as a purely individual act
- Consumers are strongly influenced by one another
- Tragedy of the commons, we fail to see what can happen in the broader picture
what did Marx place more importance upon generally
placed more importance on production and labor than consumption
What are Marx’s views on commodities
Commodities are not just THINGS, but embodiments of social relations, complex combinations of labor, nature, and ideology.
Use value
qualitative subjective dimensions
Exchange value
the price products command on market
Central concepts of the Marxist views on consumption
- To Marx, labor was a commodity whose use value was less than exchange value to employers.
- Marx argues that Employers look at all their workers as overpaid
- Employers can’t pay workers the value of their input completely or there would be no profits. They also can’t underpay you. Why Henry Ford paid his workers to be able to afford their vehicles. Most severe internal contradictions capitalism faces. Workers still have to be consumers. Incessant need to find new markets.
the cause of underconsumption, and what it means for capitalism
Extraction of surplus value by employers leads to underconsumption by the working class and a tendency to crisis.
Commodity Chain
network of labor and production processes that produce a commodity
Know the form of transportation that we characterized as most wasteful in terms of our consumption patterns (especially in the U.S.)
Automobile
ecological footprint
estimate of amount of resources necessary to support a person’s lifestyle
inflation
the increase in the general level of prices of goods and services
barter
Direct exchange of goods and services for other goods and services; the way we did business for most of our history
Know the economist who came up with the theory of comparative advantage
David Ricardo-Different regions have long specialized, and continue to specialize, in the production of different types of goods and services
Know the 3 implications comparative advantage has for economic geography
- It shows how powerfully trade and exchange shape local production systems
- It reveals that specialization reduces total costs of production (trade improves efficiency even without reallocating resources)
- It shows large markets allow more specialization than small ones; economies of scale develop more easily
Be able to briefly explain the central view of the Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory
a country should specialize in producing goods that demand the least from its scarce production factors, and export these to obtain goods it is ill-equipped to make
Be able to explain the impacts of factor-price equalization when specializing in a labor-intensive good
abundance of labor diminishes, marginal labor productivity rises, and wages increase
Be able to explain the impacts of factor-price equalization when specializing in a capital-intensive good
labor becomes less scarce, marginal productivity and wages fall
Know some of the flaws of the comparative advantage and Heckscher-Ohlin Trade theories
- Generally, they ignore transportation costs and scale economies
- They also assume perfect knowledge of trade opportunities (and willingness to pursue them)
- They also assume homogeneity of products, perfect competition, immobility of production factors, and freedom from government interference
What is the most important flaw of the comparative advantage and Heckscher-Ohlin Trade theories
Failure to account for role of transnational corporations
Know the two myths that Michael Porter dismissed about national competitiveness when developing his theory of competitive advantage
Cheap Labor and Abundant Natural Resources
Know the KEY to economic success in the competitive advantage model
Productivity growth