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Goods and Services: Some are Private, Some are Not
by Aleksandr Balkunov (Kyrgyzstan), Agota Matyas (Hungary), Lynne Stover (USA), Cathy Trana (USA)

LESSON DESCRIPTION

Students make construction paper cutouts of businesses and structures and create a community map bulletin board. Students analyze the goods and services available in their community to determine that some are privately produced and governments provide others. Students learn that taxes, fees, and loans pay for government goods and services.

AGE LEVEL

9-11 years old

CONCEPTS

• Government goods and services
• Private goods and services
• Taxes

CONTENT STANDARDS

There is an economic role for government to play in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Governments often provide for national defense, address environmental concerns, define and protect property rights, and attempt to make markets more competitive. Most government policies also redistribute income.

BENCHMARKS

Governments provide certain kinds of goods and services in a market economy.

Governments pay for the goods and services they use or provide by taxing or borrowing from people.

OBJECTIVES

• Students will distinguish between goods and services provided by private businesses and those provided by government.
• Students will explain why governments provide certain goods and services.
• Students will explain that taxes collected by governments are used to pay for goods and services provided by governments.

TIME REQUIRED

One to two class periods

MATERIALS

• Large sheet of paper to cover a bulletin board
• Assorted colors of construction paper, ½ sheet per student
• Crayons and tape
• Scissors, 1 pair per student
• One copy of Activities 1 and 2, each printed on a different color paper and cut apart
• Copies of Activity 3, one per student
• Transparencies of Visuals 1 and 2
• Construction-paper cutout of a parks department building
• Activity 1 pdf - 9kb
• Activity 2 pdf - 9kb
• Activity 3 pdf - 9kb
• Visual 1 pdf - 8kb
• Visual 2 pdf - 9kb

PROCEDURE

1. Display Visual 1 and ask students where they would call to report a broken swing set in the park. (Parks Department) Write the answer on the bottom of Visual 1.
2. Randomly distribute one card from either Activity 1 or 2 to each child. Keep the card that identifies the parks department for use in step 12.
3. Tell students to read the cards and write the answer to the question on the back of their cards.
4. Direct students’ attention to the blank bulletin board. Tell them that the bulletin board is a picture of their community. Ask what is missing. (Possible answers might include houses, buildings, stores, and businesses.)
5. Tell students to look at the answers they wrote on the back of their cards. Have them share their answers. (movie theater, video store, sporting goods store, hair salon, restaurant, dry cleaner, car dealership, pet store, rental office, bank, bowling alley, dentist, clothing store, grocery store, stationery store, gas station, news stand, post office, highway department, library, school, sanitation department, zoo, recycling center, police station, parks department, bridge, traffic light, street signs)
6. Tell students that all their answers are examples of buildings and structures that are missing from their community. Explain that they will make construction-paper cutouts of structures that they have written on the back of their cards.
7. Display Visual 1 with the answer, “parks department,” written on it. Show students the construction paper parks department as a model.
8. Give a piece of construction paper, scissors, and crayons to each student. Tell them to make their construction-paper structures. When they are finished, have them share their structures.
9. Explain that some buildings and structures represent businesses. Businesses produce and sell goods and services to people. Some buildings and structures represent goods and services provided by governments to their citizens.
10. Display the parks department cutout. Tape the appropriate card from Activity 2 on the construction paper cutout.
11. Distribute tape. Have students tape the cards from Activity 1 or 2 on their construction paper structures so that the name of each structure is visible.
12. Attach each structure to the bulletin board and label it “Our Community.” Draw roads and a river on the bulletin board. Discuss the following.
    1. What do the two different color labels on the buildings and structures in our community have in common? (One color represents privately owned businesses and one color represents things provided by the government.)
    2. Who provides our community with the greater number of goods and services we want? (private businesses)
    3. What goods and services are provided by the privately owned businesses? (movies, videos, sporting equipment, haircuts, food, clean clothes, cars, pets, apartments, banking services, entertainment, dental care, coats, groceries, school supplies, gasoline, newspaper) Point out that businesses sell these goods and services to their customers.
    4. What goods and services does government provide? (mail, postage stamps, road repairs, books, trash pickup, zoo, recycling collection, police protection, recreation, bridge, traffic light, street signs) Point out that the government collects taxes from people and businesses in the community to be able to pay for these goods and services.
13. Reinforce the concept of government goods and services using the example of cleaning the classroom. Point out the mess in the classroom from the activity. Discuss the following.
    1. Is it fair for one person to clean up the room while the rest of us go out to play? (No.) Why not? (The mess was made by many students.)
    2. Who should clean up the mess? (Students might suggest those who made the mess or taking turns.)
    3. What might happen if we ask everyone to clean up the room voluntarily? (Some would and some wouldn’t. Those who don’t volunteer would benefit because other students would clean the room.) Is this fair? (No, some students benefit and don’t do any work.)
    4. What happens when people make a mess in our parks? (City workers clean it up.)
    5. Who pays for the goods and services bought from private businesses such as a fast food restaurant, movie theater, or grocery store? (consumers, such as the students and their parents)
    6. Who pays for the goods and services provided by the government? (If students don’t know, tell them that people and businesses pay taxes that are used to provide these services.)
14. Explain that taxes are monies paid by people to the government. Government uses these monies to pay for goods and services it provides.
15. Tell students that sometimes these goods and services are also paid for with fees such as bridge and highway tolls and entrance fees to public parks.
16. Explain that governments can borrow money to pay for some goods and services that require a great deal of money to produce, such as national defense, health insurance for the elderly, and education, if they don’t collect enough taxes. When the government borrows money, it must pay it back with interest
17. Discuss the following.
    1. What are some types of taxes? (sales, property, income)
    2. Why does government provide certain goods and services? (Consumers want these goods and services and feel they are so important they should be made available to everyone. These include such things as national defense, education, and highways.)
    3. If consumers want these goods and services, why won’t private businesses provide them? (Private businesses won’t offer these goods and services because once they are produced, some people will benefit even if they didn’t pay for the good or service.) Refer back to the example of cleaning up the classroom, pointing out that everyone benefits even if only a few voluntarily clean up the mess. Ask students for examples from their community. (street lights, traffic lights, police protection)
18. Display Visual 2. Have students sing, “Some Are Private; Some Are Not. ”

Closure

Review the main points of the lesson with the following.

1. What are private goods and services? (Goods and services produced privately and sold to consumers.)
2. What are some examples of private goods and services? (restaurant meals, books, cars, clothes, televisions, games)
3. What are some examples of goods and services provided by government? (national defense, bridges, police protection, highways)
4. How does government pay for these goods and services? (taxes, fees, and borrowing)
5. What are taxes? (Money collected by government to pay for goods and services it provides.)
6. Why do private businesses not provide the kinds of goods and services that governments provide? (Businesses will have difficulty selling them. Once the good or service is provided, some consumers will be able to use it without paying.)
7. Why do citizens think that government should provide certain goods and services? (Citizens think these goods and services are important for every one to have or use.)

Assesment

Distribute a copy of Activity 3 to each student. Tell them they will be detectives looking for goods and services provided by government and private businesses. Ask students to read newspapers, listen to television and radio news stories, and walk through their neighborhoods and towns to look for examples. Instruct students to list five examples of private goods and services and five examples of goods and services provided by government. For each good or service listed, they should write where they obtained the information.

Extension

1. Tell students that a fable is a short tale in which animals talk and a lesson is learned. Ask students to write a fable that teaches how goods and services provided by government benefit a community.
2. Write new verses for the song, “Some Are Private; Some Are Not.”

 

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Goods and Services: Some are Private, Some are Not

Scribe for Productivity

Uncle Sam’s Checkbook

Scarcity and Choice

Public Goods and Services