Government Surplus
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Government Surplus in the news

China to cut trade surplus 

The Star Online - Jan 15 3:57 PM
BEIJING: China will make it a priority to cut its large, politically sensitive trade surplus in 2007, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in comments published yesterday.
2007 legistlative session marked by surplus, many state needs and plenty of debate 
Provo Daily Herald - Jan 15 9:39 AM
Historic highs. That's the phrase tossed around for all manner of things related to this year's state budget. $10.7 billion in proposed spending. A budget surplus of almost $1.6 billion. Record state revenues. The largest proposed increase in per-pupil spending in 17 years, $450 million in potential new transportation funding, and proposals for new or expanded expenditures in health care, ...

China’s 2006 trade surplus jumps nearly 75 percent 
AG Weekly - Jan 15 2:08 PM
BEIJING — China’s 2006 global trade surplus jumped nearly 75 percent from the previous year to a record $177.5 billion, a state news agency said Wednesday in a report that could fuel U.S. complaints about market barriers and currency policy.

Bo: Reducing trade surplus a 'top priority' 
China Daily - Jan 15 12:13 AM
China's excessive trade surplus is detrimental to both domestic economic development and foreign trade relations, Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said in Beijing on Monday.

- Govenment Surplus

Here is an article on Government Surplus.

This page deals with the various forms of economic surplus, including producer, consumer, government, and Goverment Surplus social/total surplus. For information about a budget surplus, see budget deficit.
Graph illustrating consumer (red) and producer (blue) surpluses on a supply and demand chart

The term surplus is used Governemnt Surplus in economics for several related quantities. The consumer surplus Governmet Surplus is the amount that consumers benefit by being able Givernment Surplus to purchase a product for a price that is less than Govenrment Surplus they would be willing to pay. The producer surplus is the amount Governmetn Surplus that producers benefit by selling at a market price that is higher than Governent Surplus they would be willing to sell for. Note that producer Overnment Surplus surplus flows through to the owners of the factors of production, unlike economic profit which is zero under perfect competition. If the markets for factors are perfectly competitive as well, producer surplus ultimately ends up as economic rent to the owners of scarce inputs such as land.

Contents

  • 1 Details
  • 2 Argument
  • 3 See also
  • 4 References
  • 5 Further reading
    • 5.1 List of Marketing Topics

Details

On a standard supply and demand diagram, consumer surplus shows up as a triangle above the price and below the demand curve, since intramarginal consumers are paying less for the item than the maximum that they would pay.

Producer surplus shows up as a triangle below the price and above the supply curve, since that is the minimum that a producer can produce that quantity with.

If the government intervenes, using, for example, a tax or a subsidy, then the graph of supply and demand becomes more complicated and will also include an area that represents government surplus.

Combined, the consumer surplus, the producer surplus, and the government surplus (if present) make up the social surplus or the total surplus. Total surplus is the primary measure used in Welfare Economics to evaluate the efficiency of a proposed policy.

A basic technique of bargaining for both parties is to pretend that their surplus is less than it really is: sellers may argue that the price they asks hardly leaves them any profit, while customers may play down how eager they are to have the article.

In national accounts, operating surplus is roughly equal to distributed and undistributed pre-tax profit income, net of depreciation.

In heterodox economics, the economic surplus denotes the total income which the ruling class derives from its ownership of scarce factors of production, which is either reinvested or spent on consumption.

In Marxian economics, the term surplus may also refer to surplus value and surplus labour.

Argument

Economics is usually defined as the problem of how best to distribute limited resources, limited because wants are characterised as unlimited. Surplus economics argues that rather than limited resources, there is an abundance of resources and this is the economic problem. The difference is one of perspective. If wants are the focus, then of course resources are limited, but if needs or essentials are used as the foundation, then resources are seen to be abundant. The difference is between a description and an explanation. A focus on wants describes a free market situation, a focus on essentials allows an explanation of the economy to begin.

An abundance of resources means that not all need to work productively and that some can use more resources than others. Who shall be the lucky ones and how to keep the unlucky quiet is part of the economic problem. Abundance is also a problem because having more resources than is strictly needed to live presents a danger to the production processes and the command over resources that created an economic surplus in the first place.

Surplus economics seeks to answer such questions as: Why does so much waste exist along side of so much poverty?

The orthodox assumption of scarcity has survived even the staggering levels of surplus of modern economies because this assumption suits the needs of those who command resources and who prefer to ensure that the economy does not become democratised; that unpleasant tasks are done by someone else, that some win and many lose.

See also

  • consumer surplus
  • microeconomics
  • negotiation
  • profit
  • surplus value
  • surplus economics
  • Scarcity rent
  • Georgism

References

  • Monopoly capital: an essay on the American economic and social order, Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy
  • The Economic surplus in advanced economies, John B. Davis (Ed)
  • The economic surplus and neo-Marxism, Ron J. Stanfield

Further reading

  • Henry George, Progress and Poverty [1]


List of Marketing Topics
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