Grade 9 Chapter 7 economics

• Your consumer choices can create by-products such as wastes. For example, if you buy a bottle of water, the bottle ends up in the recycling or the garbage. If you buy a bottle for water, the bottle gets used again and again.
• Think critically


  What impact can consumer behavior have on the environment? How do impacts on the environment connect to quality of life?
• How does consumer behaviour affect quality of life for individuals and groups in Canada and the U.S.?
• What affects the impact of consumerism on the economies of Canada and the U.S.?
• Consumerism


  An economic theory that links prosperity to consumer demand for goods and services, and that makes consumer behaviour central to economic decision making
• Consumer behaviour has many impacts, including impacts on producers, jobs and the environment.
• Think critically


  How might marketing affect consumer behaviour? Why might understanding the role of marketing be important to you as a consumer?
• North America's auto industry used to depend on consumers purchasing new cars every two or three years. Because of consumer pressure and foreign competition, today's cars are better built, safer and have longer warranties. So, consumers use their cars longer and don't buy new cars as frequently. When they do buy cars, they may choose one made in Asia or Europe.
• Think critically


  To what extent does consumer behaviour affect the jobs and products available to people? How do jobs and products connect to quality of life?
• This bumper sticker dates from 2003. It aimed to encourage Alberta consumers to band together and buy Alberta beef to support Alberta beef producers. In 2003, "mad cow disease" had stopped international sales of Alberta beef, which meant Alberta beef producers faced hard times.
• Think critically


  How can consumers act together to bring about change?
• Based on these photographs, what challenges and opportunities can consumerism create for society?
• The relationship between marketing and consumerism.
• The common values consumerism reflects in the economies of Canada and the U.S.
• The marketing techniques used by the advertiser to sell goods and services.
• The relationship between advertising and consumer behaviour.
• The ways this relationship affects your quality of life and that of others.
• To what extent does marketing impact consumer behaviour?
• What do you already know about marketing techniques used by advertisers to sell products? How do these affect your decisions as a consumer?
• Factors that link consumer behaviour to identity, health and the environment.
• Connections between economic growth and consumer behaviour.
• Techniques marketers use to influence consumer behaviour.
• How government decisions influence consumers by limiting or supporting certain consumer behaviours.
• Many factors can affect the behaviour of individual consumers, such as the shoppers in this mall. Individual consumer choices affect society as a whole — for example, the jobs people have and the quality of the environment.
• Think critically


  How do factors such as jobs and the environment connect to citizenship, identity and quality of life?
• The choices we make as consumers can reflect our identity.
• To what extent do the products we consume define who we are and what's important to our quality of life?
• For your chapter task, you need to create a media message about the effects of marketing on consumer behaviour. Media messages and marketing are important in our economy — and the economy of the U.S. — because consumerism is important in our economy. Media messages and marketing aim to affect consumer behaviour.
• Media messages can affect your decision making and your position on issues. It's important to think critically about media messages, so you base your decisions on reliable information.
• To figure out techniques that make media messages effective, explore and analyze two or three examples, such as a bulletin board, flyer, radio announcement or TV commercial.
• Rational


  In classical economic theory, economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Rational agents


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• When a message gets my attention, I think about why. Sometimes, I just like the music or the pictures that go with a message. Once I figure that out, I can look at the message itself. I can think about what it really says.
• There are many kinds of media out there (television, radio, online texts, visual). Identify what kind of media it is first.