Page 76 - Business Principles and Management

Chapter 3 • Economic Environment of Business

One of the basic features of
capitalism is the right to private
property. How is property
ownership handled in socialist
and communist systems?

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Being in business does not guarantee that a company will make a profit. Among
other things, to be successful a company must produce goods or services that people
want at a price they are willing to pay. Other fundamental features of capitalism
covered next deal with competition and the distribution of income.

CHECKPOINT

Explain why private property is essential to a capitalistic system.

business note

Price Setting

Demand for a product refers to the number of products Microsoft Corporation recently announced
that will be bought at a given time at a given price. an initiative to use a sell/lease strategy to put
Thus, demand is not the same as want. Wanting an computers in the hands of poor people around
expensive luxury car without having the money to buy the world. The system would work like pay-
one does not represent demand. Demand for a Mer- for-minutes cell phones. Individuals would buy
cedes Benz is represented by the people who want it, a computer at a reduced price and then pay
have the money to buy it, and are willing to spend the for usage over time. Microsoft has two goals
money for it. with this strategy. One is to increase the overall
There is a relationship between price and demand. sales of Microsoft software. The other goal is
With increased demand, prices generally rise in the economic development. Putting computers
short run. Later, when demand decreases, prices gener- into the hands of billions of people around
ally fall. For example, if a new large-screen TV sud- the world can increase their education and
denly becomes popular, its price may rise. However, productivity.
when the TV is no longer in high demand, its price will
likely drop.

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