The question of economic growth is thrown into further confusion by the methods used to measure it. Fundamentally, economics is myopic. It measures reality by its current market price. The intrinsic value of real things, their essential character which remains unchanged even when their price on the market fluctuates, is not an issue to the economist. He is like Oscar Wild's cynic.

Someone who is consigned permanently to the present, spurring both the past and the future

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Someone who knows the price of everything and value of nothing

Right on! Give the BNAT exam to get a 100% scholarship for BYJUS courses

Someone who basks in the glories of growth unmindful of the cost

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Someone, who worships price and assumes that 10% richer in monetary terms is 10% richer in happiness

No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today!

Open in App

Solution

The correct option is B
Someone who knows the price of everything and value of nothing

The most important words in the paragraph are "price” and "value”. Essentially, the author wants to convey that the economists fail to draw a relationship between the price and the value of real things. Option (a) can be eliminated because it is outside the scope of the passage. Options (c) and (d) do not fit in with the idea of a cynic and hence can be eliminated. Option (b) however, talks about the entire essence of the paragraph in brief and blends with the flow of the paragraph.
Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer choice.

Suggest Corrections

Similar questions

Q. Arrange the different parts in the correct sequence to form a meaningful sentence/paragraph.
P : When the future date arrives, the bear expects
to buy in at a lower price to deliver the stock
that had been sold under the future contract
at a higher price.
Q : A market in which prices are falling or are
expected to fall is called by economists a bear
market.
R : Likewise, the term bear can be applied to a
person who expects stock prices to fall and
sells stock that he or she does not have for
delivery at a future date.
S : It is a designation commonly used in securities
markets and commodity markets and is the
opposite of a bull market.

Who can check the price fluctuations in the market by holding back the goods when prices fall and releasing the goods when price raise?

Read the passage to answer the question:
Most economists in the United States seem captivated by the spell of the free market. Consequently, nothing seems good or normal that does not accord with the requirements of the free market. A price that is determined by the seller or, for that matter, established by anyone other than the aggregate of consumers seems pernicious. Accordingly, it requires a major act of will to think of price-fixing (the determination of prices by the seller) as both “normal” and having a valuable economic function. In fact, price-fixing is normal in all industrialized societies because the industrial system itself provides, as an effortless consequence of its own development, the price-fixing that it requires. Modern industrial planning requires and rewards great size. Hence, a comparatively small number of large firms will be competing for the same group of consumers. That each large firm will act with consideration of its own needs and thus avoid selling its products for more than its competitors charge is commonly recognized by advocates of free-market economic theories. But each large firm will also act with full consideration of the needs that it has in common with the other large firms competing for the same customers. Each large firm will thus avoid significant price-cutting, because price-cutting would be prejudicial to the common interest in a stable demand for products. Most economists do not see price-fixing when it occurs because they expect it to be brought about by a number of explicit agreements among large firms; it is not.

Moreover, those economists who argue that allowing the free market to operate without interference is the most efficient method of establishing prices have not considered the economies of non-socialist countries other than the United states. These economies employ intentional price-fixing, usually in an overt fashion. Formal price-fixing by cartel and informal price-fixing by agreements covering the members of an industry are commonplace. Were there something peculiarly efficient about the free market and inefficient about price-fixing, the countries that have avoided the first and used the second would have suffered drastically in their economic development. There is no indication that they have.

Socialist industry also works within a framework of controlled prices. In the early 1970’s, the Soviet Union began to give firms and industries some of the flexibility in adjusting prices that a more informal evolution has accorded the capitalist system. Economists in the United States have hailed the change as a return to the free market. But Soviet firms are no more subject to prices established by a free market over which they exercise little influence than are capitalist firms; rather, Soviet firms have been given the power to fix prices.

The primary purpose of the passage is to:

(I) The change in any price is reflected in an index number.

(II) The wholesale price index can be used to measure the monetary and real value of national income and expenditure.

Q. 94. Output of an economy is worked out both at market prices as well as factor cost, but for growth purposes, output at factor cost is considered. Consider the following statements in this regards.
1.If output measured at market prices increases it does not necessarily imply that more goods and services have been produced in the economy.
2.Output measured at factor cost is more useful for cross-country comparison.
3.Output at market price and factor cost can never be the same.
4. Output at factor cost in terms of constant prices reflects inflation adjusted growth in output.
Which of the above statement(s) is/are correct?

Join BYJU'S Learning Program