Who is a rational consumer?

Who is a rational consumer? What features does it have?

general information

Let's first find out what consumer behavior is. This is the name of the process of demand formation by people who select products from those available on the market based on their prices and the size of their personal budget. A rational consumer is a person (buyer) in the economy that enters into economic relations in order to realize his material and spiritual needs. All his actions carry the principle of balance and relative usefulness of the goods. Given that our needs are unlimited and diverse, and the buyer’s income is limited, he must constantly make a choice from the large number of goods that are offered to him in the market. It can be assumed that he seeks to acquire the best products from the entire available range.

Reason for this behavior

When the personality problem was studied, the results were obtained, according to which the source of any activity is precisely needs. The functional or psychological need or shortcomings of a particular subject, object, individual, social group or society leads to the fact that they want to satisfy their needs. But in the context of limited income, you have to make a choice. To satisfy their needs, each person in the market of services and goods is guided by their subjective line of behavior, their position as an element of the economy and the current economic situation. In order to be able to say that a person is a rational buyer and has appropriate behavior, he must make decisions and carry out actions that are taken on the basis of choice when comparing options and take into account many different factors. All this is done in order to find a profitable and appropriate offer for yourself. A rational consumer maximizes utility at the point where the budget line touches the indifference curve. It should be remembered that he has a limitation in the form of the size of his own income. Alas, now there are no objective criteria for determining which set of goods can be considered the best for each specific consumer. This choice is made from a subjective point of view. From this follows the feature that a person does not always behave rationally.

Theory of Consumer Behavior

She considers rational consumers those people who have an individual scale of preference and act within its framework with a limited income. Such a person tries to achieve the maximum degree of satisfaction. And rationalism in this case is to get the most utility with a limited income. But at the heart of consumer choice is always a person’s desire to satisfy one or another of his needs. Certain problems are created by the fact that each individual has his own unique preferences. They are summarized by market demand. Through this tool, the desires of people are expressed. They can influence the market situation by sharing their income between different services and goods. The price and volume of product supply in the market largely depend on the consumer factor.

freedom of choice

To begin with, we note the importance of consumer sovereignty. This is called the ability of the aggregate consumer to influence producers thanks to the free choice of goods on the market from all those presented. This is a very important mechanism from an economic point of view. If it is limited, then a distortion will form with the consumption of certain goods and their production. Ultimately, this can lead to a crisis. It should be noted that there are quite a few mechanisms of modern society that lead to a distortion of freedom of choice:

1. The effect of imitation. This is the situation when a consumer follows most people.
2. Snob effect. In this situation, the consumer wants to stand out from his environment.
3. The effect of demonstrating exclusivity. In this situation, it is provided that a person aggressively demonstrates prestigious consumption.

Utility

Let's talk about this criterion and its importance within the framework of free choice. Usefulness is a certain degree of satisfaction that is ensured by the consumption of a certain good. And the more it is, the smaller the effect will be. From this point of view, the marginal utility of a product is of interest. So, if you use the product in large quantities, then over time it will not satisfy a person. But after a certain time, he will restore his properties. The theory of marginal utility speaks of how best to distribute their funds to fully satisfy existing needs with limited resources. It should be noted that the parameters in the calculation are of interest only within the framework of subjective human needs. In other words, for each individual individual there will be a certain quantity of goods. An example is a hungry person and a bowl of soup. The first meal will be most beneficial. Less useful will be the second bowl of soup. From the third he can already refuse, because he will be satisfied.

Laws of G. Gossen

There are two of them:

1. The law of diminishing marginal utility. He says that within the framework of one continuous act of consumption, each subsequent unit brings less satisfaction with the same volume of everything else.
2. The rule of maximizing utility. To get the best result from a certain amount of goods, they should be provided in a certain amount when their marginal utility will be the same for everyone.

Features

A rational consumer will choose the point of touch on the budget line, the highest of all the indifference curves available to him. The rule of maximizing utility is that the consumer’s income should be distributed in such a way that each last used monetary unit spent on a product or service yields the same degree of effectiveness. At the same time, she should strive for the greatest value. Let's look at this aspect in more detail using an example. The consumer has 12 rubles. He is offered two goods: A and B. The first product costs 1.5 rubles, and the second - only one monetary unit. A has a utility of 4.5 utahs, while B has a utility of 9. In the end result, for the optimal scheme, you will need to buy 6 goods A, and 3 - B. The following factors should be taken into account:

1. Cash income.
2. Preferences and tastes.
3. The price of goods and services.

Conclusion

To be a rational consumer is in the interest of every person. But alas, due to a number of features, this is not always a reality. As confirmation, we can consider the previously mentioned effect of imitation. Let's look at an example: everyone should eat well. Then his body will be able to fully perform its functions and will be more resistant to various diseases, stress, stress and so on. But now you can often observe a situation when a person makes a decision to acquire a “status” thing, as a result of which he has a difficult financial situation. Moreover, it can reach such a level that you will have to significantly save on food, which will lead to various serious health consequences.