1. INTRO. TO ECONOMICS
NOTES

2. Key Terms
1. Economics – study of how countries (people) use their resources to fulfill their needs and wants.
2. Resources – anything used to obtain needs or wants.
3. Scarcity – the lack of a resource; having little or not enough.
4. need – something for physical survival (food, clothing, and shelter)
5. want – anything that is not a need; these are luxury items
6. goods – any product that you buy.
7. service – an activity performed for a fee
8. factors of production – 4 categories of resources needed to provide goods and services

3. I. Factors of Production
A. LAND –
1. any natural resource
2. property
B. LABOR
1. human resource / human capital
C. CAPITAL
1. money (family, friends, and savings)
2. machinery, equipment, inventory
D. ENTREPRENEUR
1. person who starts business (risk taker)
2. he/she decides how to best use the other 3 factors of production successfully

4. II. Technology
A. use of science to make products faster, better, and cheaper
B. division of labor/specialization – dividing tasks of a job to make a product faster (mass production)