1 / 13

What is Economics?

What is Economics?. Write down exactly what you think we will be studying about this semester. “I Want…”. Write down everything you want. Pretend you have unlimited resources . Share with the class. Did you forget anything?. What’s the difference between a “need” and a “want”?.

clea
Download Presentation

What is Economics?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. What is Economics? Write down exactly what you think we will be studying about this semester

  2. “I Want…” Write down everything you want. Pretend you have unlimited resources. Share with the class.

  3. Did you forget anything?

  4. What’s the difference between a “need” and a “want”? What items that we’ve listed are actual needs?

  5. Do you really needall of the things you want?

  6. Economics Starts WithSome Fundamental Problems • The first problem of Economics = People’s desires are unlimited. • The second problem of Economics = You can’t satisfy all of your wants. Or as Mick Jagger once famously said…

  7. The central problem in economics

  8. Scarcity= the condition in the economy where wants are greater than the resources to satisfy them • There is a limited amount of resources on the planet. • Therefore, all resources are scarce. • Time is also a scarce resource. The amount of time a person has is limited. Money is also a scarce resource. • Some resources are more scarce than others. • Because all resources are scarce, we have to make decisions about how to use them.

  9. People have needs and wants • People cannot have all their needs and wants met, because resources (including time and money) are scarce.

  10. Economics • The study of how people and societies seek to satisfy their needs and wants by making choices when faced with limited resources

  11. SCARCITY AND CHOICE • It’s the weekend, and you’re friends are going out to dinner and to a movie. You only have $10. What are your options? • You get home from school after sports practice at 5:00. You usually fall asleep around 10:00. You have 5 hours of “free time”. How will you spend them? • Your parents have a two week vacation in the summer. What will your family do? • A business that makes shoes has to decide what style to make for next year. • The government collects $1 trillion in tax money. How will they spend it?

  12. News Flash! New technology announced that will change the world! Scientists announced yesterday a new technology, the nano-creator, that they claim will change the course of human history.This machine uses nanotechnology to rearrange sub-atomic particles of hydrogen atoms to form more complex atoms. In other words, the nano-creator can make any element, and even any object using hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant atom in the universe. The day will come soon when you can ask your nano-creator machine to make anything you want in infinite amounts, according to scientists. “Society will be greatly altered, and will be completely unrecognizable within 5 years”, says Dr. Noitall, a chief scientist on the nano-creator project.

More Related