A Review of the National Voluntary Content Standards

1
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• By Steven Hykes

2
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• The following slides are a brief summary of the
  twenty standards that the Foundation for Teaching
  Economics, the National Association of Economic
  Educators and other organizations recommend
  graduating high school students know and
  recognize.

3
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• Resources are limited
• Methods are needed to allocate these resources
• Voluntary trade results when positive gains are
  expected
• Specialization and trade allows us to exceed our
  Production Possibility Frontier

4
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• Overall a nations income, employment and prices
  are determined by spending and production
  decisions made by individuals, government and
  businesses
• Decisions are made based on comparisons of
  benefits and costs associated with them
• People respond predictably to positive and
  negative incentives

5
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• A market exists when buyers and sellers interact
• Prices act as incentives and signals to buyers
  and sellers in the market
• Money makes it easier to borrow, trade and sell.
• Competition among sellers lowers prices and costs
  but competition among buyers
• increases prices.

6
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• In a market economy, the government has a role
  when the benefits of a policy outweigh its costs.
  Examples are national defense and anti-trust
  laws.
• Sometimes policy costs exceed the benefits
  because of special interest groups or incentives
  facing voters and government officials
• Overall levels of employment, output, and prices
  are effected by the Federal reserves monetary
  policies and the governments budgetary policies

7
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• Income for most people is based on the value of
  how much and what they produce
• Entrepreneurs take the risk of organizing
  productive resources mainly because of profit
  incentive
• Institutions, such as banks, legal systems and
  unions, evolve to help meet the goals of
  individuals and groups
• Interest rates rise and fall to balance
  borrowings with savings and therefore affect the
  allocation of resources.
• Investment in technology, factories and people
  
• and improve the standard of living.

8
A Review of the National Voluntary Content
Standards

• These standards can be viewed in more detail by
  going to http//www.fte.org/teachers/nvcs/nvcs.htm
  and searching for Voluntary National Content
  Standards.