Lessons · Teaching · producers, consumers, goods and services
Goods you can hold, services you cannot, and nearly everybody is both
Producers make goods or provide services; consumers use them. A good is a physical thing; a service is work done for somebody else. Almost every person is both a producer and a consumer, usually on the same day.
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In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
Children think of themselves as consumers only, and the correction connects economics to the adults in their lives: a teacher produces a service, and buys goods on the way home. It also sets up interdependence, which is the bigger idea.
How to think about it
Sort examples into goods and services, then find the person who is both. Trace one item back through everybody whose work it needed, because that chain is what interdependence means and it is always longer than anybody expects.
Worked example
Goods are physical: bread, a bicycle, a bookYou can hold it and it exists after the exchange.
Services are work done: teaching, cutting hair, mending a boilerNothing to hold, and it is used at the moment it is given.
A teacher produces a service and consumes goods, on the same dayWhich is most adults, most days.
A loaf needs a farmer, a miller, a baker, a driver and a shopkeeperInterdependence, and the chain is longer than any child guesses.
Your turn
Name what a person is called when they use a good or service.
A person who uses a good or service is a
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Sorting by where it is bought rather than what it is. A restaurant sells you both: the meal is a good and the cooking and serving are a service.