Relative Scarcity In Australia

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All societies today are faced with the economic problem of relative scarcity. Relative scarcity rises from the fact that all our wants and needs cannot be completely satisfied as we have a limited amount of resources. Australia, which is predominately a market economy, is faced with this particular economic problem of relative scarcity, which results in facing the three choices of what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce.
Australia’s resources otherwise known as factors of production – natural resources, labour, capital and enterprise, are relatively scarce, resulting in the economic problem of relative scarcity as we cannot satisfy all our needs and wants in Australia as they are unlimited. Collective and individual wants are …show more content…

These economic models are immensely useful and help us to understand what is going on in the world economically speaking. These particular economic models are usually shown in graph or diagram form as they are clear representations of data. The production possibilities curve is a model used to understand how the economic problem relates to a nation’s productive capacity. The PPC (Production possibilities curve) enables economists to gather information on what level of production is possible when all resources are being used and what will occur when there is no availability or unemployment of particular resources. This particular model, PPC, is represented by a two dimensional diagram, therefore assuming that resources can be used to produce either product on the model. The PPC can clearly visualize opportunity cost between two products as the model demonstrates that to produce more of one good, e.g. vegemite, whilst using the same amount of resources, economies must produce less of the other good, e.g. …show more content…

Australia, like all economies, is a mixture of all three, a market economy, a planned economy and a traditional economy. A market economy is formed when a buyer and seller get together for the purpose of an exchange where the medium of exchange is money; it is often referred to as a laissez-faire. Decisions on the three fundamental questions are made by the private sector. In a planned economy, the government plans what should be produced, how the goods and services should be produced and for whom the goods and services are produced for. The government plans the overall running on the economy and when the government makes the decisions on the three fundamental questions, producers are told what to do. There is no pure planned economy in the world today. In a traditional economy, the answer to the three fundamental questions for what to produce, how to produce and for whom is based on customs that have developed of many years, including religious beliefs and the need for survival. Traditional economies are said to be self-sufficient and most goods and services are produced by workers and not through the use of

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