Scenario 10-4 the Demand Curve for Fire Extinguishers Slopes Downward and the and the Supply

question 73

Essay

Scenario 10-4
The demand curve for fire extinguishers slopes downward and the supply curve for fire extinguishers slopes upward. The production of the 500^th fire extinguisher entails the following:
• a private cost of $10;
• an external cost of $0;
• a private value of $9;
• an external benefit of $3.
-Refer to Scenario 10-4. In order to maximize the total benefit of fire extinguishers to society as a whole, should the number of fire extinguishers produced be less than, equal to, or greater than 500? Explain.

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Definitions:

Survival of the Fittest

A concept in natural selection suggesting that individuals or species that are most adaptable to their environment have a better chance of surviving and reproducing.

Charles Darwin

A 19th-century English naturalist, geologist, and biologist best known for his contributions to the science of evolution by natural selection.

Species

A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding, forming the principal natural taxonomic unit below a genus.

William Graham Sumner

A prominent American sociologist and economist known for his contributions to social Darwinism and conflict theory.