{"id":69,"date":"2018-04-05T01:02:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T01:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/os-macroecon-e2\/chapter\/introduction-to-choice-in-a-world-of-scarcity\/"},"modified":"2018-05-03T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T14:27:18","slug":"introduction-to-choice-in-a-world-of-scarcity","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-macroeconomics2\/chapter\/introduction-to-choice-in-a-world-of-scarcity\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity","rendered":"Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/figcaption>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"780\"]\"This In general, the higher the degree, the higher the salary, so why aren\u2019t more people pursuing higher degrees? The short answer: choices and tradeoffs. (Credit: modification of work by \"Jim, the Photographer\"\/Flickr Creative Commons)[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n
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Bring it home<\/h3>\r\n

Choices ... To What Degree?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

In 2015, the median income for workers who hold master's degrees varies from males to females. The average of the two is $2,951 weekly. Multiply this average by 52 weeks, and you get an average salary of $153,452. Compare that to the median weekly earnings for a full-time worker over 25 with no higher than a bachelor\u2019s degree: $1,224 weekly and $63,648 a year. What about those with no higher than a high school diploma in 2015? They earn just $664 weekly and $34,528 over 12 months. In other words, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), earning a bachelor\u2019s degree boosted salaries 54% over what you would have earned if you had stopped your education after high school. A master\u2019s degree yields a salary almost double that of a high school diploma.<\/p>\r\n

Given these statistics, we might expect many people to choose to go to college and at least earn a bachelor\u2019s degree. Assuming that people want to improve their material well-being, it seems like they would make those choices that provide them with the greatest opportunity to consume goods and services. As it turns out, the analysis is not nearly as simple as this. In fact, in 2014, the BLS reported that while almost 88% of the population in the United States had a high school diploma, only 33.6% of 25\u201365 year olds had bachelor\u2019s degrees, and only 7.4% of 25\u201365 year olds in 2014 had earned a master\u2019s.<\/p>\r\n

This brings us to the subject of this chapter: why people make the choices they make and how economists explain those choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
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Introduction<\/h3>\r\n

In this chapter, you will learn about:<\/p>\r\n\r\n