I majored in economics and graduated in June. I wrote this when I was a freshman. It is estimated that it will be useful and hopefully adopted. There are still several boxes to send to you.

Life economics

People's understanding of economics has three meanings: first, the purpose or desire of individuals or society is endless, while economic resources are limited and scarce in absolute sense. Due to the rapid increase of population, the adjustment and development of industry and agriculture, and the increasingly serious pollution, renewable resources such as forests and groundwater and non-renewable resources such as minerals are increasingly scarce, and even air and river water that were once considered inexhaustible have become scarce due to pollution. Second, although scarce resources have various uses, once they are used for one purpose, they cannot be used for other purposes. Therefore, people's economic activities all involve the question of choice. Here, efficiency means that a country's economy should organize its production and consumption units, so that society can obtain the largest number of needed goods and services, and make full use of economic resources within the scope of existing customs, laws and systems. Third, under the goal of maximizing social welfare, we can seek a fair distribution scheme through systems such as "equal opportunity" or "equal result". Under the condition of market economy, the prosperity brought by competition will be realized through the rules of fair game with equal opportunities.

And Economics in Life is to analyze slightly abstract economics and some seemingly ordinary phenomena in our lives from the perspective of economics. China, whose core goal is economic construction, at present, economics has been everywhere in our lives: analyzing and investing in stocks, calculating the price-performance ratio before buying a house, and even discounting the shopping malls that women are keen on. However, most people have not carefully thought about why the stock market is falling, house prices will fluctuate, and why shopping malls have to offer discounts. Looking at the phenomena in life from the perspective of economics and weighing the pros and cons more scientifically will help us make better judgments.

For example, these examples:

1, the secret in the frenzy

Nowadays, commodity discount has become a "business climate" and is spreading rapidly throughout the business system. Many stores also use discounts as one of the means to attract customers. No matter in the streets, you will always see the words "big sale", "special sale" and "big bloodletting" posted at the door of the store. Moreover, the store also posted a "no bargain" sign. And in shopping malls, advertisements such as "buy one get one free" and "buy two get one free" can also be seen everywhere.

In short, the whole discount atmosphere makes people feel that they are in a world full of "cheapness". It seems that as long as you open your pocket a little, you can take endless "cheap" home. However, in the face of such a crazy discount trend, we should all look at it soberly and don't suffer big losses because of greed and cheap.

Everyone knows that businesses do business to make money. And if they really "bleed" and bleed all day and all month, then which business is so "strong"? Although it must be admitted that the seasonal price of some commodities is indeed lower than the original due to reasons such as demolition of buildings, career change and urgent need for funds, businesses that promote sales by means of "small profits but quick turnover" account for a large part. Especially those celebrations such as "giving back to new and old customers", the purpose is more obvious. They attract customers and earn high profits under the guise of discounts.

Let's look at the secret of discount.

We know that for a certain number of products, whether it is to produce 1 10,000 pieces or only 100 pieces, some investments are needed, such as factory buildings and machinery and equipment. Moreover, these investments cannot be changed in the short term. We call the investment cost that cannot be changed in quantity in the short term "constant capital". Other inputs, such as labor, need more workers if you still want to produce 1 10,000 pieces, and need fewer workers if you only want to produce 100 pieces. This is an investment that can be changed at any time, and it is called "variable capital". The sum of constant cost and variable cost is the total cost required to produce goods.

If the products produced in a period of time are regarded as a whole, then the costs of producing these products (including variable costs and non-variable costs) are equally allocated to each product, and we can probably know how many non-variable costs and variable costs are included in each product. In this way, the concepts of "average variable cost" and "average constant cost" are obtained, and their sum can also be called "average total cost". If we regard the price of goods sold by the manufacturer as the benefit he gets from each commodity, then we can judge the maximum quantity of goods that the manufacturer is willing to produce and the lowest price that he is willing to sell by comparing the price with the average cost of the above aspects.

In fact, it is impossible for the store to sell all the goods at such a discount. It's just that some goods in the mall are so discounted, not only partially, but also in turn-today's daily necessities are discounted, tomorrow's spices are discounted, this week's tobacco and alcohol are discounted, and next week's food is discounted. The prices of other commodities are no different from those of other supermarkets.

Let me talk about consumers first. Those consumers who know the discounted goods and want to buy them are obviously willing to buy them. But going to the supermarket takes time and money. Since I went, since I spent the fare and time, where can I rationally choose to buy only discounted goods? Generally speaking, you always have to buy some other goods. What about those who don't know about discounted goods? Although I don't know what goods are on sale, and they are not more expensive than supermarkets in other places, why not follow the discounted goods?

Let's talk about the manufacturer. Although the discount in the store reduces the average unit price of goods, the total profit will definitely increase rather than decrease, because the discount attracts consumers and increases sales. In order to attract consumers who don't buy discounted goods even if they know the discount and maximize sales, it is impossible for the store to let everyone know the specific discounted goods in advance. He wants some people to know and some people don't.

In fact, as mentioned above, due to various special reasons, shopping malls are forced to sell goods at reduced prices, and the prices are often lower than the actual costs, so consumers will get more tangible benefits. However, in general emergencies, this situation is also rare. Because, in normal times, the price of goods sold is much higher than the actual cost, but in an emergency, as long as the price is lowered and adjusted to a little above the variable cost, it is already very satisfying from the consumption expectation, and the goods sell well and will be larger than the original sales. This is the most common phenomenon of discount. Many shopping malls use this method to attract consumers in order to obtain the effect of "small profits but quick turnover". It seems that he is bleeding, but although the profit of a single commodity is less, the number of goods sold has increased, so as long as the discount is reasonable, he can get more sales income than before.

Therefore, we should stay awake to the crazy discount craze in various shopping malls!