Key Principles of Economics

If each country specializes in areas where its advantages are greatest or disadvantages are least, the gains from trade will make each country better off than it would be if it remained self-sufficient. [3]

1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)

Economics is the social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and with the theory and management of economies or economic systems. All economists agree on one thing, the economy is large and it is unpredictable. However, throughout the years economists have developed some simple but widely applicable principles that are useful when trying to understand decisions that are made by everyday people to the workings of highly complex markets. There are Seven Core Principles of Economics. These principles are: Scarcity Principle, Cost-Benefit Principle, Principle of Unequal Costs, Principle of Comparative Advantage, Principle of Increasing Opportunity Cost, Equilibrium Principle, and

In the twelve key elements of economics, the second element states, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” The author described how spending money on one particular thing means that we are sacrificing the chance to spend money on something else or if we do one specific thing, we give up the chance to do something else. In chapter nine, Schiff used an allegory to illustrate this same idea. The allegory he used was when the senator, Franky Deep, realized the people enjoyed getting things for free, but they did not like to pay taxes. After a monsoon, he took this as an opportunity to develop a government reconstruction program. This program made it look like the people on the island were getting the reconstruction for free, but really, the citizens were still paying for the work. Therefore, even though the people thought the reconstruction was free, it truly was not. One recent even that relates to this idea was in an article called, “Everything the Government ‘Gives’ Someone Must Be Taken from Taxpayer Dollars.” This article states that there is no such thing as the government giving something away free for the price of nothing. While the government has over eighty welfare programs to provide individuals free housing, cash, food, and medical care, these programs are not free. Instead, they are funded for by taxpayers.

One of the issues that economists fail to discuss, then, is the fact that market-oriented economics is merely an artifact of our own social structure and that the grounding concepts of economics are quite different. Indeed, the grounding concepts of economics deal with the fact that people need to produce food, shelter, and clothing for their survival and that "economics" is born within the formation of any arrangement to solve the survival problem. The essential factors are production and distribution by and within the community. Economics, in other words, is part of the culture of any surviving community.

The first principle in individual decision-making is facing a trade-off. In order for individuals to accomplish their goals or to obtain something they desire, there is usually something that must be given up or traded to accomplish that. In Chapter 1 Principles of Economics, efficiency vs. equity is discussed which helps further explain this principle. Society is always desiring to

Free markets have often been idealized in the US, and have become a dominant tool for trade and distribution of goods and services. There have been multiple waves of government regulation and deregulation of the market in US history. Each of these trends have been grappling with the central question of how sufficient markets are at satisfying our goals. In theory, free markets are fair and efficient at distributing goods and services. In reality, however, government must intervene in the marketplace for two overarching reasons. First, because in practice free markets left to themselves are not always fair and efficient. And second, because fairness and efficiency are not our only goals and

TEXT: Economics, Principles, Problems and Policies, 15th Edition, McConnell and Brue Video: Econ U$A series with discussion Class Activities: APIP workbook activities, reinforcement and writing activities and other teacher-developed materials This semester-long course gives students a thorough understanding of the principles of economics that apply to the function of individual decision-makers, both consumers and producers, within larger economic systems. It places primary emphasis on the nature and

The #2 economic principle would be best suitable to describe the phrase "there is no such thing as a free lunch." People have endless needs and wants and when they're are struck with deciding on an opportunity cost, they are choosing something something while losing something else. Say you do get a free lunch, it's not free since you put time off doing something resourceful and it's not free for the people that gave you that free lunch. They used up time and limited resources to make that lunch. The #1 principle would apply in this situation. Resources are scarce so were paying the cost of losing them in the future. Nothing is technically

He concludes on this thought stating, “What the market does is to reduce greatly the range of issues that must be decided through political means, and thereby minimize the extent to which government need participate directly in the game.” Friedman more narrowly believed the government should intervene with “indivisible matters.”

Gary Becker in “An Economic Way if Looking at Life” claims that economic way of looking at life reflects the relationship between day to day economy and human behavior; their way of thinking and reasoning when handling social aspects such as crime, family, marriage, discrimination among others. Economic way of looking at life discusses various methods of economic analysis. It raises individuals into a different thinking level during decision making and the understanding of the today’s economic market and society in general. Basically economics helps in analyzing different human behaviors and especially on monetary issues (Becker, 1993).

In business it is essential for owners to consider important factors when mapping out their business objectives. Economics used as a tool to solve coordination problems. They include what and how much product to produce, how to produce their product, and for whom they are producing. In order to effectively answer these questions, economics is used. Colander (2006) describes economics as “the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political realities of the society” (p. 4). The foundation of economics is based on several factors that assist in understanding an economy.

Economic analysts say trading among other countries with no stipulations improve global efficiency in resource allocation (Tupy, 2005). Free Trade delivers goods and services to those who value them most and allows partners to gain from specializing in the producing those goods and services they do best; according to Tupy’s findings, Economists call that the law of comparative advantage. Tupy also states when producers create goods they are comparatively skilled at i.e. Germans producing beer and the French producing wine, those goods increase in abundance and quality. Trade allows consumers to benefit from more efficient production methods, for example, without large markets for goods and services, large production runs would not be economical. Large production runs, in turn, are instrumental to reducing product costs while lower production

For an economy to thrive it must spend money. The amount of money that is spent can vary greatly from one year to the next. When interest rates are low and reasonable, more loans may be taken and this money is put back into the economy. This influx of monies into the economy can create jobs which lower the unemployment rate. A nation must be able to engage in free trade to help import goods and services that it may be lacking in. When a nation has goods and services that it excels with it can export them to other nations that are in need of them. This import and export cycle determines a nation’s trade balance.

The Economy is the backbone to society. There are many factors that operate in, and govern our society’s economical structure. Factors such as scarcity and choice, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, microeconomics, macroeconomics, factors of production, production possibilities, law of increasing opportunity cost, economic systems, circular flow model, money, and economic costs and profits all contribute to what is known as the economy. These properties as well as a few others, work together to influence the economy. Microeconomics and Macroeconomics are two major components. Both of these are broken down into several different components that dictate societal norms and views.