{"id":4684,"date":"2017-07-01T02:46:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T02:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-macroeconomics\/chapter\/outcome-what-is-economics\/"},"modified":"2018-07-23T16:05:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T16:05:53","slug":"introduction-to-economics","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/chapter\/introduction-to-economics\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Economics","rendered":"Introduction to Economics"},"content":{"raw":"<h2>What you\u2019ll learn to do: explain\u00a0what economics is and explain why it is important<\/h2>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2043\/2017\/07\/01202144\/igor-ovsyannykov-362910.jpg\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6136\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2043\/2017\/07\/01202144\/igor-ovsyannykov-362910-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Men wearing traditional middle-eastern dress walking along a riverbank. \" width=\"470\" height=\"313\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\nMost people think of money when they think of economics. While that is certainly one aspect of it, economics is about a lot more than money. Really, it is a study about decision-making and choices, and how scarcity and competition lead people to behave.\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\r\nWatch this video for a brief overview of economics. You'll often encounter videos like this, enclosed inside of \"Watch It\" boxes, in this course. These are <em>highly recommended<\/em> and serve as wonderful tools to review and enhance your understanding of the concepts presented. Even if you feel like you understand the material in the reading, it is worthwhile to watch the videos.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g9uUIUqhrSQ?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"470\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn order to understand economics, it's important to master a set of key definitions and understand how they interconnect. These concepts will be used many times throughout the course. At the most basic level:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Scarcity<\/strong> means that there are never enough resources to satisfy all human wants<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Economics<\/strong> is the study of the trade-offs and choices that we make, given the fact of scarcity<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Opportunity cost<\/strong> is what we give up when we choose\u00a0one thing over another<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIn this section, we will spend more time with these definitions, and understand how they're used\u00a0in the context of this discipline.","rendered":"<h2>What you\u2019ll learn to do: explain\u00a0what economics is and explain why it is important<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2043\/2017\/07\/01202144\/igor-ovsyannykov-362910.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6136\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2043\/2017\/07\/01202144\/igor-ovsyannykov-362910-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Men wearing traditional middle-eastern dress walking along a riverbank.\" width=\"470\" height=\"313\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most people think of money when they think of economics. While that is certainly one aspect of it, economics is about a lot more than money. Really, it is a study about decision-making and choices, and how scarcity and competition lead people to behave.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\n<p>Watch this video for a brief overview of economics. You&#8217;ll often encounter videos like this, enclosed inside of &#8220;Watch It&#8221; boxes, in this course. These are <em>highly recommended<\/em> and serve as wonderful tools to review and enhance your understanding of the concepts presented. Even if you feel like you understand the material in the reading, it is worthwhile to watch the videos.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g9uUIUqhrSQ?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"470\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In order to understand economics, it&#8217;s important to master a set of key definitions and understand how they interconnect. These concepts will be used many times throughout the course. At the most basic level:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scarcity<\/strong> means that there are never enough resources to satisfy all human wants<\/li>\n<li><strong>Economics<\/strong> is the study of the trade-offs and choices that we make, given the fact of scarcity<\/li>\n<li><strong>Opportunity cost<\/strong> is what we give up when we choose\u00a0one thing over another<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In this section, we will spend more time with these definitions, and understand how they&#8217;re used\u00a0in the context of this discipline.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-4684\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li><strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Steven Greenlaw and Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Picture . <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov . <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Unsplash. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/search\/photos\/economics\">https:\/\/unsplash.com\/search\/photos\/economics<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Introduction to Economics. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Marginal Revolution University. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g9uUIUqhrSQ\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g9uUIUqhrSQ<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"\",\"author\":\"Steven Greenlaw and Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Picture \",\"author\":\"Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov \",\"organization\":\"Unsplash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/search\/photos\/economics\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"Introduction to Economics\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Marginal Revolution University\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g9uUIUqhrSQ\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"other\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube License\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"d96352df-d41c-457d-b56b-abb81886eb06","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-4684","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":4681,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/4684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/4684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11445,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/4684\/revisions\/11445"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/4681"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/4684\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=4684"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=4684"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=4684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}