Question

Why there are different answers for the question "What to Produce" in different economies?

Answer 1

• The problem ‘what to produce’ can be divided into two related questions. First, which goods are to be produced and which not; and second, in what quantities those goods, which the economy has decided to produce, are to be produced. If productive resources were unlimited we could produce as many number of goods as we liked and, therefore, the question “What goods to be produced and what not” would not have arisen. But because resources are in fact scarce relative to human wants, an economy must choose among different alternative collections of goods and services that it should produce.
  
• If the Society decides to produce particular goods in a larger quantity, it will have to withdraw resources from the production of some other goods. Further, an economy has to decide how much resources should be allocated for the production of consumer goods and how much for capital goods. In other words, an economy has to decide the respective quantities of consumer goods and capital goods to be produced.
  
• The choice between consumer goods and capital goods involves the choice between the present and the future. If the society decides to produce more capital goods, some resources will have to be taken away from the production of consumer goods and. therefore, the production of consumer goods would have to be cut down. But greater amount of capital goods would make possible the production of larger quantities of consumer goods in the future. Thus, we see that some current consumption has to be sacrificed for the sake of more consumption in the future.