Question

In macroeconomics, what are competing ends? Give examples

Answer 1

In economics competing ends means striving over one another to gain or win over resources present in an economy to simply satisfy human needs,wants or desires. Competing ends refers to problem of scarcity. Scarcity refers to the situation, when want exceeds the available resources. As a result, goods are not readily available and society does not have enough resources to satisfy all the wants of its people.

The problems that lead to competing ends are-

1. Scarcity of resources- Resources are limited in relation to their demand and economy cannot produce all what people want.

2. Unlimited human wants- Human wants are never ending, they can never be fully satisfied. As soon as one want is satisfied, another new want emerges. Wants of the people are unlimited and keep on multiplying and cannot be satisfied due to limited resources. Human wants also differ in priorities, i.e. all wants are not of equal intensity. For every individual, some wants are more important and urgent as compared to others.

3. Alternate uses- Resources are not only scarce, but they can also be put to various uses. It makes choice among resources more important.

Example-

1.Suppose you have 50 bucks with you but you wish to eat an ice cream or buy sweets or buy a chocolate then you make a choice of your need by prioritizing your requirement and follow your choice accordingly with the same available resources of 50 bucks at that point of time.

2. In a family there are ten people and supply of water is limited. As the supply of water is limited here they have to decide the quantity that each person will use and for what purpose.