B) Sum up the text in 5-7 sentences. Present you summary in class

minimum rational profit (2) scarcity interests compromises classified agents purchased hand represent factors resources utilization interaction wants efficient

The Market System

The modern market economy is populated by three types of economic agents, whose _______ constitutes economic activity: consumers, producers, and the government. The main social purpose of the economy is to produce goods and services for the satisfaction of the needs and______of consumers.

Consumers, typically, represent households that provide labour, and other______to produce against an income which they use to purchase consumer goods or to save.

Producers, typically, _______ enterprises or firms that acquire _______of production, or inputs – labour, land, and capital – from households and combine them to produce outputs, or commodities which can be _______ into goods – tangible commodities – and services. The activities of firms move around the sale of their output at a______.

The third basic element, the government, is involved with the economy, on the one hand, as a producer and consumer and, on the other______, as a regulator, supervisor and promoter of economic activities.

The economic ______ are engaged in a complex web of transactions involving factors of production and outputs. However, the volume of the commodities that can be produced and_______is limited by the______ of resources. This fact has two important consequences as regards economic decision-making:

a) the utilization of resources has to be______. In terms of the welfare of economic agents, the______of resources is efficient when every opportunity has been exhausted to make some individuals better off without hurting the______of others;

b) individual economic agents and society as a whole cannot simply use more, they have to make_____between alternative uses.

Given these constraints, consumers, producers, and the government have to make______decisions over available resources. Rational decisions reflect choices that draw maximum______from given resources or obtain desired results with the______efforts or cost.

Words you may need:

constitute v составлять

household n семья, семейная единица

acquire v приобретать

tangible adj осязаемый, материальный, реальный

supervisor n контролер

promoter n лицо, содействующее какому-л. мероприятию

complex web сложное сплетение

welfare n благосостояние

to be exhausted (зд.) быть использованным

to make smb better off (зд.) поставить кого-л. в более выгодное положение

constraint n ограничение