Answer to Question #53076 in Other Economics for candy




 Explain Thorstein Veblen’s theory of consumption. Is economic behavior, and consumption in
particular, driven by utilitarian impulses or socio-cultural factors? What is the point of
conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure? What is emulative consumption and
emulative leisure? What role do envy and invidious distinctions play in this process? Does this
lead to a state of happiness or misery? What does this imply for the presumed efficiency (or lack
of waste) of capitalist society?
Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power—either the buyer's income or the buyer's accumulated wealth. Sociologically, to the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status. Consumption is regarded to foster economic benefits, by some accounts.  
As proposed by Thorstein Veblen, conspicuous consumption (spending money to buy goods and services for their own sakes) explains the psychological mechanics of a consumer society, and the increase in the number and the types of the goods and services that people consider necessary to and for their lives in a developed economy.
<p>consumption is a basic human activity and it is very essential for the survival of any human being.</p><p><em><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">utility</span></strong></em><em><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">-</span></strong></em></p>
<p>consumption is a basic human activity and it is very essential for the survival of any human being. it, in fact, continues from birth to death. we undertake consumption for the satisfaction of our wants, which can be both physical and psychological. in order to have a proper understanding of the process of consumption we must understand the following words:</p>
<p><em><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(i) want:</span></strong></em></p>
<p>want is a feeling of mental pain, or an experience of lack of satisfaction, which a person feels for not getting a thing. this can he both for physical as well as psychological reasons. if the thing or commodity, in the absence of which we are feeling the pain, is received then our want is fulfilled, that is to say, the feeling of pain disappears. wants lead to an action designed to provide satisfaction. wants have several characteristics.</p>
<p><strong>the first</strong> is that they are unlimited in number. even as we satisfy some of the wants, we get accustomed to new wants.</p>
<p><strong>the second</strong> characteristic is that they are competitive in nature. wants compete with each other for limited resources which a person possesses. this gives rise to choice making as we have already seen in an earlier chapter.</p>
<p><strong>the third </strong>characteristic is their complementarity. it means that many wants go together. one gives rise to another and the satisfaction of one is not complete without satisfying the other also.</p>
<p><strong>the fourth</strong> characteristic of the wants is their recurrent nature. it implies that from the first unit of consumption, but the utility received from the second unit of consumption is 14 only and the total utility for 2 units, therefore, becomes 15 + 14 = 29. the third unit of consumption gives us a utility of 11 only and the total utility becomes 29 + 11 = 40. in this way, the marginal utility goes on diminishing and it finally reaches zero also for the 10th unit of consumption. this means that this commodity is no longer is a position to given any satisfaction. this is also called the <strong>point of satiety</strong>. if somebody still insists on taking an additional unit, then the marginal utility becomes negative and the total utility starts falling. we also find that the total utility is nothing but a summation of individual utilities of each successive unit, and the marginal utility is nothing but an addition to the total utility. we can also show it as follows.</p>
<p>                                           </p>
<p>                                                   <strong>mun = tun - tun-1</strong></p>
<p>where,</p>
<p>mun =  marginal utility of n units</p>
<p>tun =  total utility of n units </p>
<p>tun-1 =  total utility of n-1 units</p>
<p> </p>
<p>if we analyse the above situation we can say, that as we go on taking some units of consumption, our wants go on being partially satisfied. therefore, the intensity of want goes on diminishing and accordingly, the satisfaction also goes on diminishing. after 9 units our want has been fully satisfied and therefore, the next unit would not give any satisfaction and the utility derived from the next unit becomes '0' and after that it becomes negative or in other words the utility becomes disutility:</p>
<p>the above phenomenon is called the <strong>law of diminishing marginal utility</strong>, which can be stated as follows:</p>
<p> </p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.6344%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 97.2879%;">
<p><strong>note -  </strong></p>
<p>the law of diminishing marginal utility was first given by a german writer <strong>hermann heinrich gossen</strong> in the middle of <strong>nineteenth century</strong>. it is, therefore, also called as <strong>'the first law of gossen'</strong>. similarly, the law of equimarginal utility is called <strong>'the second law of gossen'. </strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p><em><strong>“as we go on consuming more than one unit of consumption, the utility derived from each successive unit of consumption goes on diminishing."</strong></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>here, it needs to be clarified that marginal utility would be diminishing but at what rate it would be diminishing, is not certain. in the above table we find that sometimes it falls by 1, sometimes by 2 and sometimes by 3 units. it is also to be noted that, it is possible in some cases that initially the marginal utility is increasing, but the phenomenon of increasing marginal utility would be restricted to only first few units of consumption. after that, the application of the law of diminishing marginal utility is inevitable.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><em><strong>assumptions of the law -</strong></em></span></p>
<p>the law of diminishing marginal utility is based on the following assumptions.</p>
<p>1. all units of consumption of the commodity are homogeneous in nature i.e. they are exactly the same in size, quantity, quality etc.</p>
<p>2. there is no time gap between the different units of consumption i.e. the process of consumption continues without a time lag.</p>
<p>3. the taste and choice of the consumer for the commodity does not change.</p>
<p>4. this law also assumes that the marginal utility of money is constant (although some economists do not agree with it).</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> the following are the forces which are responsible for increasing the concern of business enterprises for social responsibility.
(a) threat of public regulation: the interest of general public is to be safeguarded by the government. thus, if a business is not socially morale towards society, then it can regulate the operations of that enterprise accordingly.
(b) pressure of labour movement: the increase in capital mobility over time has increased the pressure on business enterprises to pay attention to the welfare of workers, by providing them with healthy working conditions along with good remuneration.
(c) impact of consumer consciousness: consumers education has led to a change in the mindset as consumers today are aware of their rights and responsibilities. therefore, business enterprises need to be more efficient and productive to satisfy their customers.
(d) development of social standards: business these days are not just profit oriented. for their long-term survival and growth, they need to fulfil the new standards of social welfare.
(e) development of business education: the spread of education over time has made consumers, investors, employees and owners more of social problems, thereby making them more sensitive to social issues.
(f) relationship between social interest and business interest: there is a need to maintain the correct balance between social and business interest. profitability and social responsibility go hand in hand. no business enterprise can work in isolation from society and can grow by doing the maximum good to society.
(g) development of a professional managerial class: the core objective of profit maximization was a traditional aspect. but today’s professional managers make efforts to satisfy the interests of all members of society. aristotle's understanding of happiness is similar to maslow's.

aristotle calls it eudaimonia (roots include eu, good, and daimon, supercharged activity; "demon" is a pejorative derivative). maslow calls it self-actualization.

both have the understanding that there are form/species-specific design needs, and that fulfilling of these (maslow terms it hierarchy of needs) fulfills the excellence, or virtue, of a form/-type. (aristotle views human mind as perceiver of forms, which are with and distinct from objects. forms present a type of dialectic dynamic, regarding causes as the in-forming dynamic which changes/morphs one form into the next, like some screen savers where cubes morph into spheres, etc.)

in a sense, aristotle and maslow both recognize that happiness is more than endorphin rushes; i.e., happiness is an endorphin rush per fulfilling one's reason for being, rather than simply a "sugar high" or "cheap thrill."

"a philosophy of universality," o. m. aivanhov;
"the path of the higher self," mark prophet. intro to sociology 221­ professor erin rider chapter 8 notes: social class  poverty line­ indicator as to how much is needed to live; set at about  $23,000  urban under class­ at the very bottom of the class order  conspicuous consumption­ how we use our money to showcase status  culture of poverty­ looks at the poor and says “they must lack work ethic”;  blames the poor for the circumstances they’re in  social location­ place that we are categorized into, social identity; your ascribed  identities  ameritocracy­ belief in individual drive and doing what’s necessary to succeed;  life chances are often ascribed (what you’re born into)  social mobility­ goes upward and An increase in the level of production of goods and services (national income) of a country over a certain period of time is referred to as economic growth. Higher level of investment in education sector would lead to higher proportion of educated people working with higher participation in economic activities and, therefore, would lead to higher economic growth. The following are the various ways in which investment in education stimulates economic growth: 

**(i) Imparts Quality Skills and Knowledge**: Education endows people with quality skills and, thereby, enhances their productivity. Consequently, it enhances the income earning capacities of and opportunities for the people. Moreover, it also enables the human capital to utilize the available physical capital optimally. 

**(ii) Develops Mental Abilities**: Education develops the mental abilities of people and helps them to make their choice rationally and intellectually. Education churns out good citizens by inculcating values in them.  

**(iii) Acceptability of Modernization**: An educated public of a nation has greater acceptability of modernization and modern techniques. This not only helps the economy to grow but also facilitates a primitive economy to break the shackles of tradition and backwardness.  

**(iv) Eradicates Skewed Income Distribution**: Education not only increases the income  earning capacity but also reduces the skewed distribution of income, thereby, forms an egalitarian society.  

**(v) Raises Standard and Quality of Living**: Education enhances the income earning capacity of the people, thereby; it raises the standard of living and also improves the quality of living.  

**(vi) Increases the Participation Rate**: It fosters economic development by increasing the participation of people in the process of growth and development.  

**(vii) One Solution for Other Economic** **Problems**: The importance of education is not only limited to making people educated But also in facilitating an underdeveloped economy to solve different but interrelated macro economic problems like poverty, income inequality, population, investments, under utilization of resources. tuesday, april 5, 2016 chapter 12 leadership and follower-ship 80%-85% are followers 15%-20% are leaders - leadership - process of guiding and directing the behavior of people in the work environment • formal leadership - ofﬁcially sanctioned leadership based on the authority of a formal position • informal leadership - unofﬁcial leadership accorded to a person by other members of the organization - management and leadership • management - planning and budgeting - organizing and stafﬁng - controlling and problem solving • leadership - setting a direction for the organization - aligning people with that direction - motivating people - early trait theories • distinguished leaders by - physical attraction - personality characteristics - abilities (speech ﬂuency, social skills, insight) �1 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - behavioral theorists - learning what behavior is strengthened or weakened by applying consequences or rewards • lewin on leadership - autocratic style - the leader uses strong, directive actions to control the rules, regulations, activities, and relationships in the work environment - democratic style - the leader uses interaction and collaboration with followers to direct the work and work environment - laissez-faire style - the leader has a hands-off approach ohio state studies • - initiating structure - leader behavior aimed at deﬁning and organizing work relationships and roles; establishing clear patterns of organization, communication and ways of getting things done - consideration - leader behavior aimed at nurturing friendly, warm working relationships, as well as encouraging mutual trust and interpersonal respect within the work unit • michigan studies - production-oriented leader • focus - getting things done • uses direct, close supervision • many written an unwritten rules - employee-oriented leader • focus - relationships • less direct, close supervision • fewer written or unwritten rules • displays concern for people and their needs - leadership grid - an approach to understanding a leader’s or manager’s concern for results (production) and concern for people �2 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 figure 12.1: the leadership grid - organization man (5,5) - a middle-of-the-road leader �3 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - authority compliance manager (9,1) - a leader who emphasizes efﬁcient production - country club manager (1,0) - a leader who has great concern for people and little concern for production, attempts to avoid conﬂict, and seeks to be well liked �4 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - team manager (9,9) - a leader who builds a highly productive team of committed people - impoverished manager (1,1) - a leader who exerts just enough effort to get by (1,1) should be on the bottom left of grid - paternalistic “father knows best” manager (9+9) - a leader who promises reward and threatens punishment �5 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - opportunistic “what’s in it for me” manager (opp) - a leader whose style aims to maximize self-beneﬁt - fiedler’s contingency theory - ﬁt between leader’s need structure and favorableness of leader’s situation determine the team’s effectiveness • least preferred coworker (lpc) - single person leader has least preferred to work with - high lpc - leaders who describe lpc in positive terms - low lpc - leaders who describe lpc in negative terms - situation favorableness • task structure - number of rules, regulations, and procedures one likes to have in order to get the work done position power - legitimate authority given by organization that person belong to • - being able to grant rewards or punishments • leader-member relations - how leader interacts with coworkers and subordinates �6 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - path-goal theory of leadership • a - vroom-yetten-jago normative decision model • decide - can make the decision on their own without the opinion of anyone else • consult individually - person goes around and tells each person the situation and asks for their input • consult group - discuss the issue as a whole and asks for the groups input • facilitate - calls group together as a group consult, but the leader also puts in their input and the group makes a decision together • delegate - has the group discuss it alone without the leader and they make a decision together manager should use the decision method most appropriate for a given situation �7 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - the situational leadership model - leader-member exchange • leaders form two groups of followers - in-groups (inner circle) • members similar to leader • given greater responsibilities, rewards, attention • within leader’s inner circle of communication • high job satisfaction and organizational commitment, low turnover • stress from added responsibilities - out-groups (outer circle) • managed by formal rules and policies �8 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 • given less attention; fewer rewards • outside the leader’s communication circle • more likely to retaliate against the organization • stress from being left out of the communication network - inspirational leadership theories • transformational leadership - inspire and excite followers to high level of performance • charismatic leadership - use the force of personal abilities and talents to have profound effects on followers • authentic leadership - have a conscious and well-developed sense of values and act in ways that are consistent to their value system - emotional intelligence - ability to recognize and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others figure 12.6: five types of followers - alienated • they’re passive in their behavior, they don’t have enough guts to stand up or challenge the panel that is speaking to the group • they do have their own opinions and ideas - sheep • group of people who ﬂock together that do not think independently or critically - effective follower • the group companies would like to see more of • they contribute to the company, work harder and smarter for the company, and are willing to contribute ideas to the company - yes people • people that are active in the company and are considered hard workers • committed to the company but are willing to be followers, and do not think for themselves �9 
 tuesday, april 5, 2016 - survivors • a person that somehow always chooses the best solution when faced with a crisis or challenge int the workplace • can recognize problems that are coming in the future much faster than the average person • make low risk decisions when recognizing the problem that’s coming • “better safe than sorry” �10 aggregate supply indicates the total amount of goods and services produced within an economy at a given the general (or overall) price level during an accounting period. `as = f(barn,barl,bark,bart)` where,as = aggregate supplyn = natural resourcesl = labourk = stock of capitalt = state of technologynatural resources: natural resources include the gifts of nature such as fertile land, weather conditions, adequate rainfall, flora and fauna, perennial rivers etc. the abundant availability of all these factors act in favour of production. the aggregate supply of a country bestowed with these natural resources will be higher and vice-versa.labour: availability of skilled and motivated labour is another determinant of supply. the supply in an economy with abundance of skilled labour will be high and vice-versa.capital: capital is essential in the production process. capital helps in acquiring raw materials, equipments, plant and machinery, buildings etc. which are essential for increasing the production. greater the stock of capital, greater would be the level of output and production. state of technology: the state of technology in an economy decides the level of supply. advanced technology helps in improving the production efficiency in a a country. with better and advanced technology production can be increased while reducing the cost of production. this in turn positively affects the supply. thus, the availability of modern and advanced technology helps in increasing the supply. there arethree dimensions of culture cognitive, normative and
material thatcomprise a whole
(i)cognitive: it refers to how we learn to process what we see
and hearso as to give it a meaning for example, looking at a flag
andassociating it with the country to which it belongs symbolising
thewaving of hand as a means of saying goodbye thus, every culture
hasgiven a different meaning to different actions
(ii)normative: it refers to the rules of conduct every society
has somerules according to which its members have to behave as a
result,this behaviour and action of the individuals become the
culture ofthat society
(iii)material: it includes any activity which is made possible
by themeans of materials it also includes tools and machines, which
issaid to be a part of the culture
inthe present industrial societies, advanced technology and
machinesare used some societies use them in abundance such as, usa
whilesome do not make much use of it, such as afghanistan thus, use
ofvarious materials in different ways for various purposes shows
theculture of that society
therefore,culture can be identified as material and non-material
for theproper and integrated functioning of the culture, both
material andnon-material dimensions work together as a whole the
use ofmaterials having different notions and ways of
understandingdifferent signs and symbols with certain rules of
conduct as a wholedescribes the culture of that society hi maddie,the purpose of any manipulation is to convince another person that their previously held beliefs are incorrect. one example of a way to manipulate another person is through the practice of gaslighting. think of it as someone who continually turns down the lights in a room (turning down a gas lamp) but tells another person the light is constant, it's their perception or eyesight that is affected. the purpose of gaslighting is to convince another person that they are losing their sanity. how does this transform societal values? on a large scale, if you can convince a large number of people to change their values then society will inevitably shift in its core beliefs and practices. a positive example of this is the icelandic women's protest in 1975 when every woman in the country went on strike for one day. after this protest, women were given equal wages and equal rights under the law. though this strike was not manipulation but civil rights protest, you can see the impact of change on societal values. think about efforts to take away civil rights for one specific group of people: is the language used as a weapon? is it manipulative? deceptive? how would that impact independence and personal identities? if your civil rights were taken away, say your right to vote because of another person's manipulative argument, would you feel less independent? would you feel as though your voice mattered? would you feel more valued by society or less valued by society?good luck with your homework!jessica allow private companies to compete with all govenrment services. its that simple.

when a govenrment monopoly is in place, there is no reason or mechanism for the corruption to go away.

in a free market, corruption leads to losses, so it provides incentive for the business to fire and prosecute those who are corrupt.

take the government monopoly on police protection for example. what happens to police who do not respond to a robbery? what happens to reports of police beatings and theft? often nothing. there is no incentive for anything to be done. on the other hand, in a free market, every instance would be investigated and reparations paid for mistakes, else competition will have a chance of providing the service instead.

also consider this. government programs benefit from losses. it allows them to request budget increases, or power increases. inefficiency is rewarded in government, the opposite of what is rewarded in a free market. saying that, corruption assists government as it helps to drive up costs of operation.

*corruption in society is a problem? society, or the people do not have the power to imprison you, or tax you. you are not forced to fund private citizens who are 'corrupt'.