ECONOMICS

Course Description

Economics involves a study and application of decision making in personal and societal affairs in order to satisfy needs and wants with limited resources that have alternative uses. In addition, the student must have an understanding of the theories and principles of economics that make the free enterprise system work in our society. This is a one-half unit course.

Critical Components

In order to satisfy the state graduation requirement, an economic course should deal with:

· Fundamental Understanding of Economics
· Economic Systems
· Market Structure
· Consumer Rights and Responsibilities
· Business Organizations
· Consumer Spending
· Money and Banking
· Consumer Borrowing and Buying on Credit
· Consumer Saving and Investing
· Consumer Insurance
· Supply and Demand
· National Economy
· Government Spending and Taxation
· Corporate Economic System
· International Trade

I. Fundamental Understanding of Economics

A.    Goal:

Students will understand the meaning of economics.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Identify and apply the economic concepts of scarcity and unlimited wants.

2. Explain opportunity costs and trade-offs.

3. Analyze the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship).

4. Distinguish between goods and service.

5. Identify and use the steps of a rational decision making process.

II. Economic Systems

A.    Goal:

Students will understand various economic systems.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Define the basic economic systems - traditional, command market, and mixed.

2. Recognize the basic economic questions all systems must answer:

a. What to produce?
b. How to produce?
c. For whom to produce?

3. Know the motivating forces behind each system.

4. Categorize world economics correctly.

III. Market Structure

A. Goal:

Students will understand the benefits of the free enterprise system.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Identify the market structures of pure competition, oligopoly, monopoly, and monopolistic competition.

2. List the characteristics of the free enterprise system.

3. Recognize the reasons given for the free enterprise system.

IV. Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

A. Goal:

Students will identify consumer rights and responsibilities.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Know the origins of the consumer movement.

2. Identify the rights and responsibilities of a consumer, including consumer laws.

3. Identify private and public consumer protection agencies at local, state and federal level.

4. Gather and apply consumer information from a variety of information modifications to the market system in regard to price supports, welfare, Medicare, food stamps, minimum wages, and social security, etc.

V. Business Organizations

A. Goal:

Students will understand the basic factors of production.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Compare and analyze the advantages of proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations.

2. Explain how the basic factors of production are allocated.

3. Know the meaning of productivity and how it applies to him/her.

VI. Consumer Spending

A. Goal:

Students will understand needs and wants.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Distinguish between wants and needs in the use of scarce resources.

2. Develop a budget as a means of planning and controlling the use of money to attain personal goals.

3. Demonstrate the ability to rationally use scarce resources to obtain food, clothing, housing and transportation.

4. Analyze the role advertising plays in consumer decisions.

5. Identify how information from labels, warranties, standards, grades, etc., can be used in making informed choices.

VII.    Money and Banking

A. Goal:

Students will understand the functions of banks.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Define money and explain its functions.

2. Identify the different types of banking institutions and the services of each.

3. Demonstrate the ability to write a check, fill in deposit slips, endorse a check, and balance a checkbook

4. Understand the federal reserve system and realize how it affects the money supply.

VIII. Consumer Borrowing and Burying on Credit

A. Goal:

Students will understand the phrase "buying on credit".

Objectives:
Students will

1. Comprehend the part credit plays in the national economy.

2. Identify sources of credit and costs of each.

3. Recognizes individual responsibility in the use of credit, the effect it has on personal credit ratings, and bankruptcy.

4. Know how to establish a good credit rating.

IX. Consumer Savings and Investing

A. Goal:

Students will realize the importance of a good savings program.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Understand the impact savings has on the national economy.

2. Identify reasons for a personal savings plan.

3. List advantages and disadvantages of various savings plans.

4. Recognize the variety of investment plans and opportunities that exist.

X. Consumer Insurance

A. Goal:

Students will realize the importance of adequate insurance coverage.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Recognize the functions of insurance as a risk sharing and protective device for the individual and the family.

2. Identity the types of insurance coverages available.

3. Determine the insurance that is best suited for personal need.

XII. The National Economy

A. Goal:

Students will understand the factors of our national economy.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Recognize how the nation's economic performance is measured.

2. Know and analyze the causes of business cycles.

3. Assess how government policies impact economic growth.

4. Know the types of unemployment and inflation and the causes of each.

5. Distinguish between monetary and fiscal policy supply-side and Keynesian economics and how they affect our economy.

Students will understand the necessity for a fair tax program.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Identify the purposes of taxation.

2. Recognize the basic types of taxes (e.g., property, sales, income, excise, and corporate).

3. Analyze the differences between regressive, progressive, and proportional taxes.

4. Prepare federal and state income tax forms with supporting forms and schedules.

XIV. Corporate Economic Systems

A. Goal:

Students will be able to compare various economic systems.

Objectives:
Students will

1. List and classify different economies of the world.

2. Identity and compare the characteristics of different economic systems.

XV. International Trade

A. Goal:

Students will understand the importance of international trade.

Objectives:
Students will

1. Understand the principles and practices of international trade.

2. Identify the problems of economic growth in Third World nations and its impact on the nations of the world.