MicroEconomics
Trade-Offs: An Economic Principle
As the oldest sister, I have learned a whole lot about trade-offs throughout the years. I learned how to bargain in order to gain the things that I want or need from my younger siblings. As my professor stated in our chapter notes, you cannot gain anything without there being a cost. Wikipedia defines a trade-off (or tradeoff) as a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return, gaining another quality or aspect. It often implies a decision to be made with full comprehension of both the upside and downside of a particular choice; the term is also used in an evolutionary context, in which case the selection process acts as the "decision-maker.”
A business owner must determine what trade-offs are needed to meet its customer needs. Through systematic market research and analyzing data, there are positive and negative aspects to every decision made. A business owner will only be successful when he or she realizes the trade-offs needed for their business to be the most successful. For example, the owner and founder of Chick-Fil-A decided that his store would close on Sundays for religious reasons (http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Company/Highlights-Sunday). A major trade off would be the business that Chick-fil-a would have if the store were open, the marketing aspects defending the decision to close and the fallout from non-religious types who might boycott. Although it would seem as if Chick-fil-a would not be a contender on the fast food chain list, they actually do more business in 6 days that some major fast food restaurants do in 7 days (http://www.thecross-photo.com/Chick-fil-A_Restaurants-Closed_On_Sunday.htm).
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. Most understand that both countries will benefit from trading their goods and/or services; however the most powerful country will benefit the most. Even though both countries are better off trading with each other, the more powerful country will receive the lion’s share of the coin, while the weaker country will get just enough in goods and services to keep them wanting to trade. Currently the United States participates in over 15 trading industries (Information Technology, Aerspace, Automotive, Financial Services, etc). The International Trade Administration (ITA) works to improve the global business environment ensuring fair trade and enforcing trade laws and agreements (http://trade.gov/index.asp).
Trade-offs helps a countries economy in many ways. For example, the United States exports many products from China. Digital devices, Home goods, clothing are