How Various Economic Activities Affect Government, Households, and Businesses

How Various Economic Activities Affect Government, Households, and Businesses


Rickey Dancer


ECO/372






How Various Economic Activities Effect Government, Households, and Businesses

      The economy can affect people in different ways.   The effects of the economy can be positive to you or even negative.   In most cases it effects more than just one individual.   It will affect many different individuals in various ways.   In this paper, there are several examples of the things we have to deal with every day because of our economy.
Purchasing of Groceries
      When consumers purchase groceries at a supermarket, this seemingly mundane activity represents a complex flow of resources throughout the economic system. Using the example of breakfast cereals, the flow of resources begin with a farmer growing the basic grain that is the essential ingredient of the cereal, whether that be wheat, oats, rice, corn or any number of other grains. The farmer must use a variety of inputs in the form of labor to plant, fertilize, cultivate and harvest the grain, which then makes its way to the breakfast cereal food company for processing into the cereal itself. Additional inputs and labor are required to transform the grain into the cereal, which is then packaged and most likely sold and shipped to a grocery wholesaler who then will sell and ship the cereal to a supermarket for retail to the public.
     
      The macroeconomic effect on households of purchasing the cereal and other groceries serves to reduce the consumer’s disposable income. Although there is an opportunity cost represented by whatever else the consumer is not purchasing with those dollars, groceries represent meeting a basic need of a household. As such, a variety of factors can affect the consumer’s decision of which groceries to purchase. Gicheva, Hastings and Villas-Boas (2007) note that when gasoline prices increase, consumers are likely to adjust grocery purchasing decisions...