jim luke 7:42 pm on February 16, 2017

Topic 4 Readings: Economic Systems

Just one required reading for this topic, but it’s fairly long/involved. It’s the Wikipedia entry for Economic Systems. What I like about this reading is that it really helps bring out the variety and complexity of economic “systems”. It really is much, much more complex than the simple “capitalism vs. communism vs. socialism” that we are often taught in K-12 schools or that are used in popular political discourse.

I suggest doing two things here. First, explore. Don’t just read the text, follow some of the links in the article to gain a richer understanding. Second, it’s worthwhile to remember this article. It will make a useful starting point for some additional research for when you start writing longer posts on your blog or when you write about the book project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_system

Brittney Baley 8:57 pm on February 16, 2017

The complexity of the economic systems makes it difficult to put everything together in a few, fairly short, readings. But I liked how the article outlined the basics of economic systems, but allowed room for the reader to know there was more to it than just what the article was saying. There is such a wide range on how a country, state, city, and even town can set up their economic system. Granted a the resources of a small town limits what can be produced vs a large city or state. This narrows what products will be produced and what products need to be imported.

Economics on a larger scale is different and far more complicated. Many people think that capitalism, socialism, and communism are all that is in the world and that one capitalism system runs the same way as another capitalism system. On the surface it may appear that way, but underneath and as you look deeper two economic systems are never the exact same. In theory they should be, but different laws, government systems, resources, and incentives create a different types of economy within the economy type, if that makes any sense.

Mixed economies describe most countries better than just one type of economy. Even with this description most economies are more complicated than just one label.
Daoud Esa 9:01 pm on February 20, 2017

This article did not come as a huge surprise to me as I know what an economic system is and the different types. The different types of economic systems around the world are built on how successful different types of economies are. Furthermore, the gist of what I learned mostly from this article was that an economic system has to answer three main questions, what to produce, how to produce, and who receives it? In the world we live in today there are pretty much two main types of economic systems, socialism and capitalism. Every economy has a system in place that distributes resources for exchange, production, distribution, and consumption. In different economic systems they differentiate buy who controls ownership of the “means of production”. In a socialist state, the people own the means of production while in capitalism it’s owned by a sole owner. Moreover, there is an economic system called a mixed economic system. This type of system is where the government controls or partially controls certain goods and services.
Denae Mongeon 1:19 am on February 21, 2017

Please forgive my ignorance, and I do believe that Brittany Baley said it in her last paragraph. As much as this article explained I must ask, what economic system is the Primary economic system in the US?
Mixed Economics seems to fit, however, planned economics does too in some ways. Between market economies and planned economies or some other economic system which best describes the US? Which would be the best solution to our current economic situation?
Julia 4:34 am on February 23, 2017

I used to think I knew what kind of economic system we had that is until I read the descriptions of this more complex in-depth explanation of systems. Now I think we are a Capitalist Market Economy a very corrupt one if that, one that doesn’t consider the markets of different countries with different regulations when putting a product on the market.
The typology portion of this article was also very interesting.

An interesting link to check out a little off topic but closely related and provides more insight:

Video link
- Alexander Westerlund 7:54 pm on February 26, 2017
  
  That video really gave great insight to the system. I never saw that side of it all, its simple… but makes sense. It explains a lot of different things that are constantly going on.. The reason there will never be world peace. The rules required to stay a ruler.
  Keep key supporters on your side
  Minimize key supporters
  Control the treasure
  The importance of loyalty
  It accurately describes politics and the world today with a good visual, thanks for sharing this video!
Alexander Westerlund 8:19 pm on February 26, 2017

When looking at a country now I see it as not just one but multiple economic systems. Below the link organized and talked about 4 different systems a little better than the Wikipedia link. Check it out!
I’m curious to see what everyone would prefer in our country today or do you think our mixed economy is working?

https://blog.udemy.com/types-of-economic-systems/
Zachary Dowling 9:35 pm on March 16, 2017

Since taking Econ in high school I’ve always known how to define each economic system in a very basic manner. What to produce? How to produce it? And who receives what? When comparing economic systems of countries in today’s world what to produce is quite consistent around the board. Gas, plastics, food, etc. How to produce it is also the same in most countries. Labor, machines, time, money, etc. The differences really come into play in economic systems when we talk about who receives it. Take three different countries in three completely different times. The United States of the 2000s, Soviet Union of the mid 1900s and Great Britain during the 1700s. What is their to produce, other than the differences of time we are all pretty much producing the same things. How do we produce it? Again other than the differences of time, manual labor and machines are getting most what needs to be produced done. But the large and clear differences can be seen when it comes down to who receives the goods. In the United States the people receiving the goods are the business men and companies who then sell it to consumers. In the Soviet Union the government receives the goods, only to evenly distribute them among it’s citizens. While in a monarchy in Great Britain, the royalty is getting a majority of what is produced and is distributing it through the ranks, while the business men are are selling small amounts of what ever is left over.

My point here is although no one economic system is the same, the only real differences that can be seen is through who receives it. Through out time the basic human needs have not changed, what to produce and how to produce has remained constant for the most part through out many centuries.

Econproph [Comp. Systems 2017]

Jim Luke's Comparative Economic Systems Course

Topic 4 Readings: Economic Systems