|
LESSON: THE DOORBELL RANG
Lesson Summary
Victoria and Sam are forced to share or distribute a limited number of cookies. Each time the doorbell rings, more friends arrive and the children face a cookie scarcity problem.
Concept: Scarcity
Definition: Scarcity is the condition of not being able to have all of the goods and services that you want.
Comprehension Questions
Who produced the cookies in the story?
The mother produced them in her kitchen.
Explain why Sam and Victoria do not seem to have a scarcity problem with the cookies at the beginning of the story.
They evidently had enough cookies between them to satisfy their economic wants for cookies. If they really wanted more, there would indeed be a scarcity problem! In that case, they would have to decided how to allocate the cookies between them.
Identify the economic problem that grew each time the doorbell rang.
There were fewer and fewer cookies for each child. There were not enough cookies to satisfy the wants of all the children. The cookies were becoming more scarce.
Describe how their problem was solved when grandma arrived.
Grandma produced more cookies for the children.
Did this solve the scarcity problem for cookies in the story?
Yes - but only because the children ended up having all cookies they wanted in this particular, limited situation. (At least it seems that way in the story!) If that is true, there would be no immediate scarcity "problem." However, it is important to point out (to older children especially) that cookies are considered a scarce economic good. They are produced from scarce productive resources and therefore command a price in the marketplace. Thus, in a more fundamental sense, cookies are always "scarce." They are not a free good.
Other Concepts: Economic Wants, Goods
|
