1. Scarcity and the Science of Economics
1.1
What do you think is the #1 source of conflict in our world’s history?

2. Imagine…
A girl and her boyfriend get shipwrecked on a deserted island. After surveying the island they are pleased to find that it is full of plenty of fruits, nuts, small slow dumb animals and even wild corn. There are no animals or plants present that can threaten their health. They have an axe, a needle, and even some fish hooks.

3. Questions:
How is their situation different from the one the rest of the world faces?
What could happen that would threaten their ‘utopian’ life?
Does anyone know the word for the fundamental problem that we all face?

4. SCARCITY

5. Scarcity
Definition: the condition that results from society not having enough resources to produce all the things people would like to have
What would a homeless man want?
What would a man with a small home want?
What would a man who lives in a mansion want?
How is the modern world’s definition of success not helping this fundamental economic problem?
So…what might be the goal of an economist?

6. Economics
Definition: the study of how people try to satisfy what appears to be seemingly unlimited and competing wants through the careful use of relatively scarce resources
What is the difference between a need and a want?

7. Categorize the following into need or want:
Food
Gatorade
Pizza
Sodium
Water
Sun block
Igloo
Cadillac Escalade
Love
Gasoline
A weapon
Freedom
Fire
Which category is broader, want or need?

8. Class roster, writing in books
$10,000 gift v. $100,000 loan?
Class roster, writing in books

9. 3 Basic Questions a Society Must Face

10. The Factors of Production
The resources required to produce the things we would like to have, are…
Land – “gifts of nature,” or natural resources not created by humans.
Capital goods – the tools, equipment, machinery, and factories used in the production of goods and services
Financial capital – the $ used to buy the tools and equipment used in production
Labor – people with all their efforts, abilities, and skills
Entrepreneurs – risk-takers in search of profits who do something new with existing resources

11. What factors of production have gone into producing and executing this lesson?

12. The Scope of Economics
Key elements to the social science studying people and scarcity: Description, Analysis, Prediction
Description: I’ve observed that although the price of many products in certain parts of the world (e.g. Costa Rica) are similar to the U.S., services are comparatively much less expensive.
Analysis: How? And Why?
Prediction: What might happen in the future?

13. p. 11 – “The Role of the Entrepreneur”
1.2 worksheet