goods and expensive goods
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As an economy grows and productivity increases, real wages tend to rise - people get richer on aggregate. Real wage growth implies that people are able to purchase more of the goods that are in the basket of goods ( the basket that is taken to measure inflation). So they can buy more of these goods , or presumably other more expensive goods (?)
My question is that as people earn more, in real terms, and the economy and productivity is growing (such that companies are able to continue increasing real wages) will there not come a point when people start switching over to higher priced goods , meaning that the producers of the lower priced goods go out of business and they in turn have to sack their employees- how does this affect things then? Is this what is meant when people/economists talk of economies moving to higher value added products - but how can this be sustained if people switch over to high priced goods which causes employees and companies in the lower priced goods market to go out of business?
I would very much appreciate an explanation which ould help me to resolve the above confusion.
Thank you.
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Solution Summary
The question distinguishes between goods and expensive goods.
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My question is that as people earn more, in real terms, and the economy and productivity is growing (such that companies are able to continue increasing real wages) will there not come a point when people start switching over to higher priced goods , meaning that the producers of the lower priced goods go out of business and they in turn have to sack their employees- how does this affect things then?
Your first dilemma is that, do producers of lower priced goods go out of business? Yes and no. If they stick to the lower priced, lower quality and outdated goods, they will be out of business. For instance, if a producer on the plea that he produces low priced cars produces models similar to those of 1950s he will be out of business. What happens in reality is that these producers start producing "higher priced" goods. Sometimes, these producers produce a mix of lower priced and higher priced goods and some times these producers continue to produce lower ...
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