Response Question8/27/13 Read the piece “I, Pencil” 1. What are your initial reactions to this piece? 2. How does this pertain to our study of economics so far? 3. At the end of the article the pencil says it has one lesson to teach “Leave all creative energies uninhibited”. What might this mean?

Private vs. Public: Economic Systems

It’s all about the resources We’ve established that resources: 3. Resources are scarce 2. There are three kinds of resources: Land Labor, and Capital. 4. Because resources are scarce we are forced to make choices with how we use them. 1. Are used to produce everything we need Because resources are so important the questions remains: How do we decide who gets them? ?

Private Vs. Public There are two types of resource ownership PrivatePublic Individuals own resources and are free do what they please with them The government (local or national) owns resources and uses them for the “public good”.

Maria Carrillo: Public or Private? Public Receives money from the government to offer free “Public” education. How about Cardinal Newman? Private One pays to go to school there. The school is privately run and owned.

Private and Public Systems There are three main economic Systems or philosophies that help determine whether resources are publicly or privately owned. Capitalism Socialism Marxism/Comm unism

Capitalism Under Capitalism businesses and individuals own the means of production, all the resources need to make products. The goal of the business or individual is make more money. In a perfect Capitalistic society the government has no power over what the businesses do with their resources.

Socialism Under socialism the government controls the means of production, and all resources are publicly owned. THe government controls all the businesses and uses the money to provide for it’s citizens and protect workers. Citizens work more to better society than to make more money for themselves.

Marxism/Communism Under Marxism/Communism workers taker over and own the means of production. Karl Marx predicted that eventually workers would hate their jobs so much they would rise up and take over all businesses from the owners in a revolution. Under Communism every person would share resources equally and make economic decisions together. same

So what kind of economic system is the United States? Is there private ownership in the US? Are there public ownership in the US? Often you will here that the US is a Capitalist economy but really it’s a mixed economy. Yes Both