Any society’s survival depends on their ability to provide their own supplies. Due to scarcity, decisions concerning What, How, and for Whom things must be made. Even if they’re all different, they share one thing in common; economy. Economy is an organized way to provide goods for people. Types of economy can be broken down into three major kinds. These would be Traditional Economy, Command Economy, and Market Economy. Each type of economy has its advantages and disadvantages.
Traditional Economy Most of our actions come from habits and customs. An example could be American things such as eating turkey on Thanksgiving, bride tossing the bouquets, and people shaking hands when they meet. These traditions have been practiced for generations. Advantages of traditional economies are that everyone knows their role in society, and they know what to produce. For example if you are born into a hunting family, you’ll hunt. The same trend exists with being into a family of farmers. Almost no uncertainty exists How to produce because you do the same thing that your parents did. The question of For Whom is regulated by your customs and traditions of the type of society. Disadvantages of traditional economies include lack of new ideas and new ways of doing things. Strict roles in this type of society effect the punishments of people who break rules or act out of the norm.
Command Economy In a command economy only one central authority makes most of the decisions for the major decisions. The majority of the time, people have little (or barely) any influence over how their economy is run. An advantage of a command economy is that it can change drastically in a very short time. The Soviet Union went from rural agricultural society to a leading industrial nation in only a few decades. They did this by focusing on heavy industry and industrial growth instead of production of goods. During this time, they shifted resources on an enormous scale. Consumer goods were ignored, and when there was a shortage of men to work, women were put to work. A disadvantage of a command economy is that the wants of consumers are not met; only the very basic needs. The second disadvantage is that the system does not give people a purpose to work hard. A third weakness is that a command economy is a large decision- making bureaucracy. Many government officials are needed to operate it. The fourth weakness of a command