Scarcity And Billionaires: Australian Beef Market (Essay Sample)

Economics
Student’s Name
University/College
Question 1: Scarcity and billionaires
Scarcity is an occurrence where the resources are not sufficient for very individual in need. Moreover, the available resources are unable to satisfy the individual to a level that they require. It is a fundamental concept in economics and details an issue that is very common when it comes to resources. The concept of scarcity follows several assumptions. The first assumption is that the needs of an individual are often unlimited CITATION Kom03 \l 1033 (Komlos & Kriwy, 2003). A person is never satisfied what they have. An individual will continuously want more even if all their current demands have been met. Moreover, resources are always limited, and this will continuously create a condition of scarcity. The resources in question are factors of production such as labor, land, entrepreneurship, and capital. Entrepreneurship is defined as the ability to plan, organize, and take risks CITATION Lyl13 \l 1033 (Mehta, 2013). It also involves coordinating all other factors of production to achieve profits. The other factors or production include capital, land, and labor. Labor is human effort or skill. Land is the natural resource and all the products of the earth while capital is any technology or machine that can produce things. In all scenarios, there are is a limited amount of the factors of production.
Everyone, including billionaires, faces the problem of scarcity. Essentially, we cannot have all the services and goods that we need. Every person has different needs and wants, and scarcity affects everyone differently. For instance, a rich person can face the shortage of storage space for a growing business. Due to the increase in demand, the billionaire can choose to purchase more products, and can face space scarcity to lack of infinite space for storing such product CITATION Lyl13 \l 1033 (Mehta, 2013). Specifically, the billionaire will have to expand their storage space to ensure that the have sufficient storage space. Essentially, they are facing a scarcity. The second scenario can arise when the few billionaires are competing to purchase antique cars or painting. These are often expensive and limited in quality. There will be a competition among them to buy the product, but only one of the will be able to buy the antique product such as a vehicle that was made in the 1950 but still in good condition and is part of a limited edition. Finally, the rich can also face a scarcity of income CITATION Dez11 \l 1033 (Dezhbakhsh & Rubin, 2011). Income is a finite resource, and the person cannot have a united supply. The rich person will have to choose a desire over another. All individuals have 24 hours in a day and are limited to some resources they can gain within this time. When the person becomes wealthy, they learn of new sets of demands that need to be satisfied. There is a lack of evidence to show that the wealthy cannot find a valuable use of additional income, no matter how wealthy they become.Fundamental concepts
Several basic concepts in economics define the economic way of thinking. The first is an opportunity cost. This concept arises in the context f scarcity. The reality of the existence of scarcity means that businesses, governments, and individuals have to make choices. In this regard, they select some opportunities while ignoring others CITATION Rob12 \l 1033 (Rycroft, 2012). Specifically, a person has to make a choice between variety f alternatives, and choices the one that is the most beneficial or advantageous. For instance, buying a house means that the person will have to forgo a vacation. In this regard, the opportunity cost of what a person chooses is the value arising from the best alternative that has been sacrificed.
The second fundamental concept is individualism. In economics, there is always an emphasis on the actions of an individual. In many economic theories, there is often a model to detail the behavior of a ‘typical’ person. All groups, in this case, unions, firms or the society in general, are close analyzed as a collection of individuals. Moreover, these individuals act in a particular way, and will affect the outcome CITATION Placeholder1 \l 1033 (Yousefia, 2011). It is viewed as an ideal. For instance, a choice an individual makes will affect the operations of a company, as is the case with a CEO of a corporation. Their decisions have an overarching effect on the enterprise.
The final core idea is production level and costs. When an organization makes decisions on the quantity they want to produce, they use the economic principle of producing an amount that ensures the maximization of the company’s net benefit. Essentially, the company will still increase its rate of production if it expects that its revenues will also rise while maintaining costs. The net revenues are also known as profits. The term ‘expected’ is important in the analysis, as the company is not certain about what they can sell CITATION Rob12 \l 1033 (Rycroft, 2012). For instance, a company supplying electronics will continue to increase its production rates. It will continue to occur as long as it is making profits. Due to uncertainties, the company will have to calculate, consider, and estimate contingencies.
Question 3Impact of food importation on local food prices
The importation of food from Australia to China would lead to an increase in the price of food in Australia. It arises from supply and demand, where importation would increase the demand for food while reducing the supply of food in...