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1-20 Business and Economic Environments [CH 1

Table 1.3 A Comparison of Living Standards

Number of People Per:
Life Schooling ______________________________________
Expectancy Mean Years Doctor TV Telephone McDonald’s
U.S. 78.44 13.2 345 0.89 1.3 23,090
China 70.1 4.8 724 37.5 76.9 468,235
Japan 78.6 10.7 609 1.6 1.9 42,521
UK 81.16 11.5 357 1.1 1.6 53,300
Mexico 74.25 8.8 417 14.3 12.4 3,139,303

Income is required to pay rent/mortgage, gas and electric bills, water and trash; to better
educate yourself, put food on your table and the clothes on your back.
You may think about your work life for the next 50 years, who you will work for, your
dreams and aspirations about family and friends; maybe about running your own business.
In any case a knowledge of successful economic practices becomes even more crucial for
those who risk their own funds, thus a study in business. Business is dynamic, meaning it is
always changing (but the principles never change). Handling the predictable and
unpredictable events can be easier, more efficient, and less traumatic when you understand
business.
Prices increase and decrease, products change and are added or deleted from market
shelves. Services are created to meet needs, laws and regulations are passed and a plethora
of unexpected events occur. Stock markets skyrocket and crash, Wal-Mart becomes the
retail giant and Microsoft the software king while an Enron and Arthur Anderson crash
because of unethical managers. All of this puts people on the firing line for most of today's
pressing social problems. Child care, toxic waste disposal, resource conservation,
affirmative action programs, consumerism, and industrial safety are issues business people
encounter on a daily basis. Many business people join with community service
organizations, like Kiwanis International, Rotary International, the local churches and
synagogues to affect humanitarian efforts in their communities.
Your career choices and study will likely place you in a position of responsibility earlier
than most occupations. Many experts believe business careers are an excellent choice for
people who want to improve society.

As you venture on, consider these words from Adrian Rogers (1931—2005).
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of
prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for
without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government
does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not
have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half
gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they
work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply
wealth by dividing it.”
― Adrian Rogers

Summary of Learning Goals

1. Define what a business is and how it operates within the private enterprise system.
Business provides the bulk of our employment as well as the goods and services
necessary to support a society. Although the United States is a capitalist country, a large
portion of the world operates under other economic systems—primarily communism,
socialism, or mixed economies. Business comprises all profit-seeking activities and
enterprises that provide goods and services necessary to an economic system. U.S.
businesses are part of a private enterprise system in which success is determined by
competition among firms.

Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve
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