Section 2 Introduction

Section 2 Introduction

You are a consumer. You purchase products and services to satisfy your needs and wants. Remember that a need is something necessary for survival, such as a warm jacket during the winter. A want, however, may be a pair of expensive designer jeans. Those jeans are something you may desire, but expensive designer jeans are not necessary for survival.

Economies are established to supply the goods and services that satisfy society's needs and wants. As a consumer, you are a very important member of the country's economy.

If a consumer is "someone who purchases and uses goods and services", how does the definition change if you add the suffix -ism to the word consumer? A word that ends with -ism means "a belief or an organized way of thinking" such as socialism or communism. If you add the ending -ism to consumer, what is the meaning of the new word?

Consumerism is important to the economies of Canada and the United States. Every time a consumer buys a good or a service, an investment is made in the country's economy. Consumers influence the three basic economic questions:

• What goods should be produced?
• How should these goods be produced?
• For whom should the goods be produced?

consumerism: an economic theory that links prosperity to consumer demand for goods and services, and that makes consumer behaviour central to economic decision-making

Patricia Lychak et al., Issues for Canadians: Student Resource (Scarborough: Nelson Education Ltd., 2008). 375. Reproduced by permission.

  Vocabulary

Add the definition for the term consumerism to your Issues for Canadians Definitions handout. Be sure to write the definitions in your own words.

As you continue to investigate economics, add symbols and icons to your definition as you continue to develop an understanding of these terms.

Place your updated handout back into your Activities folder.

 

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What challenges and opportunities can consumerism make for society?

Read the document, Consumerism, as you begin to think critically about this question. This reading will require you to take some notes.

Click on the link below to access the document.

Consumerism

Save your notes to your Activities folder.

In this section, you will examine the factors that affect quality of life. Then, you will explore how consumer behaviour influences quality of life. Through your investigation, you will examine how consumer views differ across regions of North America. You will see how consumerism gives power to collectives such as environmental organizations, animal rights groups, or First Nations people.

In Section 2, you will examine this question:

How do the Canadian and the United States economic systems influence consumer decisions and quality of life?

In this section, you will complete the following:

• Section 2 Inquiry
• activities
• assignment