Draft "Economics for Everyday Living" Course/Theme
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A. Personal and Household Financial Affairs and Management
I. Consumer Decision-Making
- Describe the basic economic problem that confronts every society (i.e., economic scarcity).
- Compare the concept of economic scarcity with the concept of something being rare recognizing that something does not have to be rare for it to be relatively scarce (e.g., oil, forests).
- Explain why economic scarcity leads to people making choices and trade-offs because they can't have everything they want.
- Describe how people's choices regarding what they want, and are willing to buy, have an impact on how our economic resources are used.
- Identify the opportunity cost (i.e. the best alternative given up) involved in a number of recent personal economic decisions.
- Provide examples of how the economic choices people make today can have both present and future consequences.
- Provide examples of how both positive (encouraging) and negative (discouraging) incentives affect people's economic choices and behavior.
- Determine the different types of income that can be earned by Canadians through the ownership of various kinds of resources — natural resources, labour, capital.
- Identify the different uses for personal income.
- Distinguish the difference between an economic "need" and a "want."
- Summarize forces and factors influencing a consumer's perceptions of "needs" and "wants" (e.g., values, peers, advertising, movies, parents, friends).
- Describe how the concept of "marginal benefit" can play a role in spending decisions.
- Describe how the life cycle influences a person's goals, spending, and investment decisions over time.
- Describe key factors that should be considered when making effective personal consumer decisions.
- Compare the steps and challenges involved in individual decision-making with those faced when couples or families make consumer decisions together.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of leasing a car with buying a car.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of renting a home with buying a home.
- Compare the total costs that are associated with a mortgage when there are differences in the down payment, the interest rate charged, and the period over which the mortgage will be repaid (amortization period).
- Describe factors that will affect the goods and services available to consumers.
II. Budgeting and Planning
- Develop a rationale for why a person/household should have a budget and financial plan.
- Describe the key components of a household budget.
- Describe the key components of a personal financial plan.
- Describe the costs that are incurred by most people operating a household.
- Develop a list of possible financial goals and objectives that an individual or household might aspire to achieve and include in a financial plan.
- Develop a number of sample budgets for a specific income to illustrate how a household could achieve different levels of saving through different spending decisions and activity.
- Identify some of the most common problems that people encounter when trying to live within a budget and implement a financial plan.
III. Borrowing, Debt, and Credit
- Identify and describe a range of purchases for which an individual or household may choose to assume debt.
- Compare the costs, and potential advantages and disadvantages, of using credit and credit cards to make purchases.
- Investigate sources from which an individual or household may be able to borrow money.
- Describe the key factors that a person should consider when deciding which type of debt to incur if he/she is borrowing money.
- Explain the criteria often used by lenders when deciding whether or not to lend money to someone who wants to borrow it.
- Explain why a credit rating system is used by many lenders when making lending decisions.
- Describe, in general terms, how the credit rating system works.
- Explain how a person can maintain a good credit rating.
- Describe the warning signs that a person or household may be experiencing debt problems.
- Describe some of the strategies and actions that can be undertaken by an individual or household when debt problems are encountered.
- Compare the various types of credit cards that are available, the interest rates that are charged, and how interest is calculated.
- Compare the interest costs charged on credit cards when balances are paid in full with when partial payments are made over time.
- Complete a credit application.
- Describe the potential benefits of a "consolidation loan."
IV. Saving and Investing
- Develop a rationale for why people and households should try and save if they can.
- Explain why saving is so important to achieving financial goals and implementing a financial plan.
- Complete a number of sample calculations that illustrate the magic of compounding when money can be saved/invested over a period of time.
- Compare the options available when a person has accumulated savings.
- Compare the differences in holding savings in the form of cash versus a fixed income investment or investing in some form of equity.
- Describe key criteria an individual should consider when making investment decisions.
- Compare the key features of a number of different investment options.
- Explain how "diversification" among a range of investments can reduce risk.
- Describe the key features of a mutual fund and how it works.
- Categorize a variety of investment alternatives as to whether they represent cash, fixed income, or equity investments.
- Explain why investing always involves finding a personal balance in the potential risk and potential return for each investment option.
- Assess their own "profile" and the level of risk they might assume at different points in the future as they move through the life cycle.
- Track the performance of a number of stocks over a period of time and propose potential reasons for changes in the price of these stocks.
- Apply knowledge and skills to make simulated investment decisions over a period of time.
- Explain the process by which a person can invest in different investments and the role played by intermediaries such as brokers.
V. Taxes
- Identify and describe the various taxes that are paid by Canadians.
- Identify the component parts, and information required, on a personal income tax form.
- Compare the tax rates that apply to different kinds of income.
- Describe reasons why taxes are paid and the role that taxes play, or can play, in our economy.
- Define a tax credit.
- Compare the extent to which different taxes can vary with respect to the level of income that is earned.
- Describe the factors that can influence how much an individual or household might pay in tax.
B. Work-related Activities
I. Understanding the World of Work and Business
- Describe the key factors that determine what is produced in the Canadian economy.
- Describe the various kinds of resources that can be used and combined to produce goods and services.
- Describe the economic significance of the concept of "division of labour."
- Explain how specialization leads to more interdependence among producers and consumers.
- Differentiate the terms "public enterprise" and "private enterprise."
- Define the concept of the labour force.
- Explain why people voluntarily exchange goods and services (i.e., they expect to be better off after the exchange).
- Compare the features of the different types of businesses that exist (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or cooperative).
- Differentiate between fixed and variable costs for a business.
- Define the concept profit.
- Describe how profits are calculated for a business.
- Describe the factors that can affect the profit of a business.
- Compare the various roles profit can serve.
- Differentiate between the concepts of "fair profit" and "excessive profits."
- Describe how the level of competition in a market is influenced by the number of buyers and sellers.
- Demonstrate how the level of competition among sellers of a good or service can affect things such as the price, the quality, the reliability, the level of service, etc. that is available to consumers.
- Demonstrate how the interaction between the supply of, and the demand for, a good or service, will affect the market price.
- Demonstrate how, as the supply of a good or service tends to rise in a market, the market price for that good or service will tend to fall, depending on what happens to peoples' willingness to buy the good or service (i.e., the demand).
- Determine how the price for a good or service is established.
- Describe how productivity is measured.
- Identify factors that influence the productivity of a business, a government or an individual.
- Explain how businesses compete.
- Describe the potential benefits that consumers can derive from competition among businesses.
- Describe the role of management in a business.
- Describe how technology can affect production methods, resource use, and the quality and quantity of goods and services produced.
- Differentiate invention and innovation.
- Explain how the productivity of workers is affected by the physical capital (e.g. tools, equipment, machinery) with which they are able to work.
- Describe the role and functions of unions.
- Determine a situation in which workers may want to consider forming a union to represent their interests and another situation in which they may choose not to form a union.
- Demonstrate how a business, in the course of its production activities, can generate unintended costs and/or benefits (i.e. externalities) on others.
- Explain why governments establish regulations to affect what is produced and how production takes place.
- Describe the potential benefits, and challenges, of engaging in export trade and selling goods and services in other nations.
II. Occupations and Career Exploration
- Identify possible components of an effective career plan.
- Describe steps that a person could take to build an effective career plan.
- Explore personal interest in a variety of work and career options.
- Provide examples of how people's incomes can be affected by the choices they make, or have made, about education, training, skill development, and career choice.
- Compare the impact that various levels of education, training, and experience can have on career opportunities and potential income.
- Compare the incomes that are earned by a variety of types of employment and summarize the reasons for the variations.
- Develop the framework for a personal career plan.
III. Entrepreneurship and Enterprise
- Develop a definition for an entrepreneur.
- Describe the role that entrepreneurs play in our economy and society.
- Summarize the characteristics, skills, and abilities that are commonly associated with entrepreneurs.
- Describe why passion ("doing what one loves to do") can play a key role in a person's entrepreneurial success.
- Compare "enterprising or entrepreneurial skills" with "employability skills."
- Compare entrepreneurship with employment in terms of possible career alternatives.
- Describe how a variety of entrepreneurs in their community, and in other parts of Canada, have made a contribution to the economic development of the community and Canada as a whole.
- Describe the different kinds of risk that can be associated with being an entrepreneur.
- Compare a number of business opportunities, in their own community, based on needs, wants, and problems that exist.
- Determine how a person would select an entrepreneurial opportunity from a variety of possible entrepreneurial opportunities that exists.
- Generate a number of ideas for ventures that could address an entrepreneurial opportunity in their community.
- Explain how entrepreneurial ideas can be evaluated to select the best one from among alternatives.
- Describe the key parts of a venture plan that can be developed to guide the creation of a new venture.
- Summarize the kinds of resources that would be required to implement a sample venture.
- Distinguish between debt and equity as ways of financing a new business venture.
- Identify a variety of sources from which funding could be sought for a new venture.
- Summarize the criteria that would be used by a potential investor to assess whether or not to invest in a new venture.
- Compare a number of not-for-profit business opportunities that exist due to community needs, wants, and problems.
- Determine whether or not they have a personal interest in exploring the "entrepreneurship" option.
Draft "Economic Citizenship" Course/Theme
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A. Canadian Citizenship
I. Role of Government
- Compare the economic roles and responsibilities for governments at various levels in our society — i.e. municipal, provincial, federal.
- Describe ways in which governments affect day-to-day economic life.
- Distinguish between "public" and "private" goods and services.
- Summarize the possible goals that could be established for the economy of the nation.
- Explain why a government may choose to provide a particular good or service.
- Describe the key roles that are played by the Bank of Canada.
- Identify examples where there are differing points of view on (a) whether a good or service should be provided by government and (b) how much of a good or service should be provided by government.
- Compare the views of those who believe that government should play as little a role as possible in the economy with those who believe the government should play a major role in the economy.
- Compare the general views of the major political parties in terms of the roles that they believe government should play in the economy.
- Describe the impact that governments can have on the economy as they develop policy that helps to define, establish, and enforce property rights. (N.B. a property right to a good or service includes the right to exclude others from using the good or service and the right to transfer the ownership or use of the resource to others.)
II. Economic Issues and Policy
- Describe the different kinds of policy tools that can be used by government in an effort to influence the economy (i.e., fiscal policy; monetary policy; exchange rate policy; regulation policy).
- Describe a variety of recent and current issues that have been a priority for governments as they have made decisions about economic policy.
- Propose issues that will likely be a priority for governments over the next 5-10 years as they make policy decisions.
- Describe actions the federal government can undertake to try and boost production when the economy is in decline.
- Describe the actions the federal government can undertake to slow down the economy if it is expanding too quickly and creating risks for inflation.
- Describe the potential economic impact a government can have on the economy by operating with different types of budgets (i.e., a balanced budget, a budget deficit and a budget surplus).
- Explain how a government obtains funds if it runs a budget deficit.
- Differentiate between government debt and a government deficit.
- Compare a variety of initiatives that have been undertaken by governments in the past and present to try and influence such things as the following — the conditions of people living in poverty; the number of people living in poverty; level of unemployment; level of output in the economy; international trade; immigration; wages, incomes, and working conditions; youth employment and health and safety standards
- Describe why the federal government, the Bank of Canada, and most other major nations in the world today assign a high priority to trying to keep inflation under control.
- Explain how the Bank of Canada can influence the level of spending in the economy.
- Compare the potential impact on the economy of a rise in interest rates with the potential impact of a decline in the level of interest rates.
- Compare the potential impact on the economy of a reduction in taxes with the potential impact of an increase in taxes.
- Identify the ways in which governments can try to influence the distribution of income in a nation.
- Propose some initiatives that could be undertaken by individual Canadians, Canadian companies, and Canadian governments to assist those who live in conditions of poverty both in Canada and in other countries.
- Describe the general causes of inflation in an economy.
- Compare some of the causes of unemployment in the economy.
- Compare the potential advantages and disadvantages of economic growth for an economy.
- Describe the rationale for providing a company with a monopoly (e.g., a telephone company, a natural gas producer, nuclear power generation).
III. Economic Realities
- Identify the three basic economic questions that people in every society must address.
- Compare the different ways in which societies may choose to answer three basic economic questions — of what to produce, how to produce, and how to distribute what is produced.
- Describe how the Canadian economic system addresses the three basic economic questions.
- Describe the concept of economic power (e.g., the extent to which one has the ability to access resources, own resources, and control the use of resources).
- Identify some of the key factors that will influence the economic capacity of an economy - that is, its capability of producing goods and services.
- Explain why the level of production in the Canadian economy tends to rise and fall over time as it experiences a business cycle.
- Explain why inflation tends to become more of a problem as the level of output in an economy moves closer to the capacity of the economy to produce.
- Define the unemployment rate.
- Explain why the unemployment rate is an imperfect measure of unemployment.
- Summarize reasons why a person may be unable to find and/or maintain employment.
- Compare the different ways to distribute goods and services in a society.
- Describe the key roles that are played by money in the economy.
- Explain what determines the amount of money in circulation in the Canadian economy.
- Describe the factors that can influence the distribution of income in a nation.
- Describe reasons why some regions of Canada experience more economic hardship than others.
- Describe a variety of key factors that tend to influence the economic development of a nation.
- Summarize key factors that tend to influence the quality of life in a nation.
- Describe key factors that had an influence in the past on the growth and development of the Canadian economy.
- Explain how banks and other financial institutions can channel funds from savers to borrowers and investors.
- Define interest rate.
- Compare the borrowing and spending levels in the economy when interest rates are relatively high with the borrowing and spending levels when interest rates are relatively low.
- Determine why Canada has been frequently rated as one of the best countries in the world in which to live.
IV. Our Economic Future
- Propose actions that could be undertaken by individuals, governments, and companies to try to reduce the number of people who are unemployed.
- Propose ways in which Canada, and Canadians, could help others in the world that are less fortunate and nations that are trying to improve economic development.
- Describe some of the key factors that are likely to influence the development of Canada in the future.
- Develop a vision for the future of Canada and describe what would be necessary for the country to achieve that vision.
- Propose a set of goals for the Canadian economy.
- Propose policy measures and changes that they see as important to helping to build a better economic future for Canada and Canadians.
B. Global Citizenship
I. Canada's Interdependence with Other Nations
- Describe a variety of ways in which Canada's economy is linked to other nations of the world today.
- Determine those nations in the world that are most closely linked, economically, to Canada.
- Describe advantages and disadvantages associated with a more global economy.
- Describe a variety of reasons why a country may import goods and services from another nation.
- Describe some of the key factors that will tend to influence the success of Canadian companies in selling goods and services to other nations.
- Describe the possible economic impact when Canadians decide to purchase imported goods rather than domestically produced goods.
- Summarize ways in which a nation can try to restrict or prevent the sale of goods and services from another country.
- Determine why a good from another country may be available in Canada at a price different from that from a Canadian producer.
- Describe the advantages and disadvantages that may have been generated for the Canadian economy from major trade agreements (e.g., the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and the North American Free Trade Agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico).
- Describe the ways in which changes in the value of the Canadian dollar can affect export sales to, and import purchases from, other nations.
- Explain why the value of the Canadian dollar will tend to rise or fall in international exchange markets depending on the level of buying and selling.
C. Caretaker
I. The Economy, the Environment and Quality of Life
- Explain why resources would soon be depleted, exhausted, or unavailable if people could acquire any quantity of goods and services that they wanted without any constraints (e.g., prices, incomes).
- Explain why some resources tend to be abused because we do not, or cannot, assign an economic value to them or get payment from people for using them (e.g., air or water).
- Explain why it is that when something is relatively scarce it assumes economic value and the value will be reflected in how the supply of the resource compares with the demand there is for its use.
- Determine ways in which the actions of individual Canadians, households, and business activity can help or harm the environment.
- Provide examples of how production activity can minimize negative environmental effects and even help the environment.
- Differentiate between the concepts of "standard of living" and "quality of life."
- Compare the extent to which people tend to care for things for which they feel a sense of ownership with the care they assign to things that are owned by others or collectively by everyone through governments (e.g., parkland or roads).
- Propose a set of initiatives that could be taken by the Canadian government to help improve the environment.
II. Economic Assistance, Compassion and Benevolence
- Compare the effectiveness of some of the programs and initiatives that have been undertaken to try to assist Canadians who live in conditions of poverty.
- Propose some initiatives that could be undertaken by individual Canadians, Canadian companies, and Canadian governments to assist those who live in conditions of poverty both in Canada and in other countries.
- Differentiate the terms "equal distribution of income" and "equitable distribution of income."
- Describe factors that lead to variations in the level of well-being of Canadians.
- Describe a variety of ways in which individuals, companies, governments, and organizations can assist others who are in need — both in one's own country and in other nations.
- Describe factors that tend to influence whether people care about the economic well-being of others and take action to assist.
- Describe the kinds of policy tools and actions that are available to governments to help people in need of economic assistance.
- Determine their personal view regarding the extent to which they believe individuals are responsible for their own well-being and the extent to which individuals have responsibility for the well-being of others.
- Identify exemplary examples of individual initiative that has led to an improvement in the economic well-being of others.
