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Why should primary school learners know what is happening in the South African economy?
To educate learners economically
To protect them against the economic problems they may encounter.
Be informed about the world of work, and be prepared to survive in it.
Defining Economics
Economics is a social science that studies the following processes:
Producing goods + services from limited/ scarce production means.
Dividing the goods and services among the people
Using them to optimally satisfy man's unlimited needs
Achieve the maximum possible prosperity.
Production Factors
Resources used to produce goods and services:
Natural resources - Water, gold, coal, diamonds, etc.
Labour - Physical and mental talents of the country' s inhabitants
Capital - Equipment and machinery
Entrepreneurship - Ability to combine the other three production factors to deliver products.
Economic Literacy
Involves a knowledge of the economy
Know enough to be able to hold his/her own in the economic + work world
Important that the learner be introduced to certain basic economic concepts.
Participants in the Economy
Households - Individual members of the community
Government/Authority - State
Business enterprises - Manufacturers and providers of goods and services
The Economic Process
Human needs takes place
Gives rise to the production of goods or services
The exchange of goods takes place
Followed by consumption of goods and needs are satisfied
Cannot consume as much as we want/need, because goods and services available are limited.
Consumer and producer forced to make choices about what to consume and what to produce.
Production
What needs to be produced - the consumer wants the specific producer's product and is prepared to pay for
it.
How to produce - materials limited, careful choices to production techniques, production process be
efficient, economical
For whom to produce - usually directed at a specific area of the consumer market
Demand and Supply
Price of a product determines how much of the product is sold;
Demand is not the same as need;
Willing to pay money in exchange for their needs, their needs become demands.
Consumer influenced by prices as well as the person who wants to produce a product.
, The South African Economic System
SA has a mixed economic system:
A system in which traditional, command and market mechanisms all play a role.
Elements of command economy:
Enterprises directly/indirectly owned by state (Iscor, Telkom, SABC).
Certain prices are fixed.
Government interfere in free movement of production factors through influx control and job reservation.
Elements of market economy:
People free to decide what they want to do.
As long as they obey certain rules and laws.
Private ownership and initiative important.
Facts about a market economy:
Have individual property rights and price system functions properly.
Also known as Capitalist countries.
Prices tell people what to produce, how much to produce, what skills to acquire, etc.
Act in own-interest, you automatically act in someone else' s interest. (the invisible hand)
People try to make money for themselves and their families. Try to convince to buy from them and not the
others.
Competition is very important in a market economy. Try to improve product or come up with a new one.
Price system plays important role in any modern society. Consumers really determine the prices of
products or services.
In a market economy, the society allow s individual property rights. Who wants to sell or buy from you
and how you want to use your property.
Three coordinating mechanisms in economic systems (Rules of the economic systems):
Traditional mechanism:
Oldest + most common
Society members of community produce the same products,
Use the same inputs and production techniques and
They divide the yield amongst each other.
Command mechanism:
Economic actions determined by a central authority
Makes decisions what is produced,
How it is produced and
How it is divided.
Was characteristic of the Soviet Union and China.
Market mechanism:
People are free to own their own property,
May trade in any way they choose,
Spend their money anyway they want,
And where the government does not control the price.
Economic Growth
Determined by total production over a period of time.
GNP (Gross national Product) = total good + services produces in a specific year.
Economic growth = GNP increases.
No grow takes place from year to year, stagnation sets in.
When growth decreases country experiences an economic decline/slump/recession.
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