Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Economics - Trickle Down

In my studies of economics one example of trickle down economics has remained in my mind.

This is the example

If someone gets a business opportunity to earn 100,000 profit and he wants a car which cost 20,000, he is able to buy one and the car seller/distributor earns 20,000. The car seller then distributes part of this 20,000 as wages to his workers as well payment to his suppliers/car company with the remaining as profit.

However if 5 people get a business opportunity to make 20,000 then all of them are able to buy cars, the car seller is able to pay more to his employers, the car manufacturer makes more money and more money is circulated in the economy.

This is the same 100,000 except in one case 1 person gets everything and in the other it gets distributed to more than one person and more wealth is distributed overall into the economy from the consumerism of more people.

More or less, this is the difference between an open economy (relatively since a truly open economy also has external competition)and one where there is a monopoly or established connected rent-seeker able to seize/get given all opportunities for itself. Wealth will be concentrated in the hand of the few rather than being spread around and everyone in that society will be left worse off.

Established monopolies/rent-seekers dealing with the state are also less competitive and this higher cost of course is passed to the state which ultimately has less money to spend on social amenities (schools, roads etc).

So the few get wealthy and a lot of people lose out.

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