What costs will a company have had to pay in order to manufacture mobile phones?
What costs will a company have had to pay in order to manufacture mobile phones?
‘PROS & CONS’ – Discuss in pairs and afterwards make a decision together.
Circularity: The production process is usually shown as a straight line that begins with raw materials and ends with finished products. After consumption, are used products taken to landfill? How can we connect the end of the process to its beginning?
Income: This is the term we use for the money received by the people who own the resources used… What do the words “rent”, “salary” and “dividend” mean?
Public sector: The involvement of public authorities—such as the local council, regional government and government ministries—is also necessary for any business to carry out its production activities… Do factories use roads and ports? Do they receive aid and grants after natural disasters or pandemics? Do laws prevent insecurity and injustice?
We have already seen that the planet has LIMITED RESOURCES in physical terms—because of its specific size and the solar energy it receives—biological terms—because of the number of individuals of each plant or animal species—human terms—because of the global working-age population—and even monetary terms—because of the amount of money in circulation. These resources are also known as FACTORS OF PRODUCTION, since they are necessary to produce the goods and services that later satisfy our needs. Mechanisation and robotisation—capital—are gradually replacing people—labour—in most industries. However, in the services sector, it is less likely that human labour will be dispensed with.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP or ‘entrepreneurial initiative’ is known as the “fourth factor of production”. It refers to the person or group of people who organise the other three factors in order to create a good or service. Entrepreneurs take an initial risk because they must invest their money in materials, machinery and labour without being certain that their product will be successful in the future. To compensate for this risk, they need an incentive—a greater reward—which will be the profit earned by setting a price higher than the total cost of all the factors used.
ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD IS MADE OF UNAPPETISING FACTORS OF PRODUCTION
Classifying the following factors of production
< Explain your reasoning in each of the following examples and identify which type of factor of production the word in CAPITAL LETTERS represents: LAND · LABOUR · CAPITAL. >
1. The SAVINGS you use to open an organic food shop.
2. The HOURS a hairdresser spends serving customers during the day.
3. The AIR used to inflate the tyres of a city bus.
4. The digital CLOCK on the front of a pharmacy.
5. The GOLD contained in a smartphone.
< In nature, all organic waste is a source of new life, as the following video shows. >
4.2. Use resource-gathering and resource-management strategies independently, understanding their characteristics and applying them to the process of turning ideas and solutions into actions.