Read and translate the following words paying attention to the stress displacement:
product - production; symbol - symbolic; tempted - temptation; assume - assumption; probably - probability; public - publicity; sense - sensitivity; model - modeling; consider - consideration
Text A
GOODS AND MARKETS
Task 6
Read the text and be ready to do the exercises.
Increases in people's incomes raise consumption of most products. These products are called normal goods. There are some products, however, that people use less of as their income increases; these products are called inferior goods. Public transportation is an example--as people's incomes rise, they stop riding the bus and drive their own cars.
Prices of related goods also influence how much of a product people buy. Goods that are substitutes satisfy the same set of goals or preferences. An example of a substitute for hamburger is pork. The opposite of a substitute is a complement, a good that helps complete another in some way. Catsup and hamburger buns are complements to hamburger, and if they are priced low enough, consumption of hamburger may rise. Sometimes goods are such good complements that they are sold together and we think of them as a single item. Left shoes and right shoes are an example.
Normal Good
For most items, having a higher income would result in you consuming more items. In other words, quantity demanded rises as incomes rise. There is a positive association between quantity demanded and income. This can also be said as having a positive income elasticity of demand.
Inferior Good
These goods are not of poorer quality than other goods, as is suggested by the adjective "inferior." Instead, they are simply goods that you consume less of if your income rises. There is a negative association between quantity demanded and income. This can also be said as having a negative income elasticity of demand.
Neither Normal Nor Inferior
There are some items that are not inferior goods. These are usually necessities that all people use. Luxury goods are said to have high income elasticity of demand: as people become wealthier, they will buy more and more of the luxury good.A luxury good may become a normal good or even an inferior good at different income levels, e.g. a wealthy person stops buying increasing numbers of luxury cars for his automobile collection to start collecting airplanes (at such an income level, the luxury car would become an inferior good).
Socioeconomic significance
Certain manufactured products attain the status of "luxury goods" due to their design, quality, durability or performance that are remarkably superior to the comparable substitutes. There are also goods that are perceived as luxurious by the public simply because they play a role of status symbols as such goods tend to signify the purchasing power of those who acquire them. These kinds of goods are the objects of a socio-economic phenomenon called conspicuous consumption.Luxury brands
A luxury brand or prestige brand is a brand for which a majority of its products are luxury goods. It may also include certain brands whose names are associated with luxury, high price, or high quality, though few, if any, of their goods are currently considered luxury goods.
Market trends
The three dominant trends in the global luxury goods market are globalization, consolidation,and diversification. Globalization is a result of the increased availability of these goods, additional luxury brands, and an increase in tourism. Consolidation involves the growth of big companies and ownership of brands across many segments of luxury products. In economics a necessity good is a type of normal good. Like any other normal good, when income rises, demand increases. But the increase for a necessity good is less than proportional to the rise in income. Necessity goods are goods that we can't live without and won't likely cut back on even when times are tough, for example food, power, water and gas.
Most necessity goods are usually produced by a public utility. Stocks of private companies producing necessity goods are known as defensive stock. Defensive stock is stock that provides a constant dividend and stable earnings regardless of the state of the overall stock market.
Difference Between Necessities and Luxury
With the development of Science and Technology, many of our comforts have become our necessities. Earlier when the computer was invented, it was used only for the purpose of data storage and calculus. However today it has become our prime necessity. Digital cameras were once considered as a luxury, at least in the third world countries, but now, we no longer see those old cameras instead we see digital cameras, because of many of their advantages
Who knows what may seem today as a luxury invention may become an important part of our life tomorrow.