The Beechmont Crest Guide to Economics
WHAT IS ECONOMICS? WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
A good working definition of economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Don’t be fooled by the seeming abstractness of this statement. Economics addresses some very concrete questions that affect million’s of people’s lives everyday: How much will gas cost next month? If the record companies lower the prices of music CDs, will consumers purchase more, or is the trend toward music downloads irreversible? How do a person’s expenditures on food, clothing, and shelter vary when he or she gets married and has children?
Economics can’t necessarily give you an exact answer to each of these questions, but it provides you with the tools you need to make predictions of your own. Although economics employs numerous mathematic and analytical tools, it lacks the black-and-white precision of algebra or accounting. As mentioned above, economics is about making guesses---but educated ones. As such, the so-called dismal science represents the place where the fuzzy realm of social science and the hard-edged world of mathematics meet.
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
-George Bernard Shaw