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Economics: The Study of Scarcity and Choice
Since there is not enough of everything to go around, everyone — individuals, business firms, and government—needs to make choices from among the things they want. In the process they will try to economize, to get the most from what they have. With this in mind, we can define economics as the social science that describes and analyzes how society chooses from among scarce resources to satisfy its wants.
The need to choose is imposed on us all by our income, wealth and ability to borrow. Individuals and families are limited by the size of their personal income, saving and ability to borrow. Similarly, business firms are limned by their profits, savings and borrowing power, and governments by their ability to tax and borrow.
Income, savings, profits and taxes enable people, institutions and government to purchase goods, products you can see or touch, and services, work performed for pay that benefits others. The problem that each must face, however, is that once the decision has been made to choose one set of alternatives, one loses the opportunity to choose the other. Trade-Offs and Opportunity Costs
Let's suppose that you recently managed to save enough to buy the CD player you always wanted. While you were building up your savings, you discovered the fun of basketball would now love a pair of pump sneakers. You can afford to buy either a CD player or sneakers, buy not both. It's a trade-off.
Economists describe these kinds of trade-offs as opportunity costs. The opportunity cost of something is its cost measured in terms of what you have to give up to get it. Thus, the opportunity cost of the CD player in the example above would be new sneakers.
Business is also faced with the problem of choices and opportunity costs. In planning an advertising program, for example, a local store might have to choose between a newspaper ad or a direct-mail campaign. If it puts its efforts into newspaper advertising, the opportunity cost is the benefits of a direct-mail campaign.
Like individuals and business firms, government also pays opportunity costs. If for example, the federal government chooses to increase its spending for roads by reducing the number of warships be built, the opportunity costs of the improved road network would be a more powerful navy.
Grammar and lexical exercises
Put 10 questions to the text and answer them.
II. Translate the following sentences with the elliptical construction
Pattern: When in rapid motion, electrons can produce... Коли електрони швидко рухаються, вони можуть створювати...
1. Though invisible in themselves, ultraviolet rays can be utilized in the production of light. 2. Although a medium-small star, the Sun is ever a thousand times as massive as Jupiter. 3. When at its greatest distance from the Earth, Mars is about half as bright as the Polar star. 4, Once in the air, the jet aircraft is relatively simple to fly, owing to the present of some controls. 5. The fact is that V-2, although a tremendous achievement, was primitive by comparison with many modern guided missiles.