Три вопроса экономики и экономическая система
economy
economics
economic
economist
What is Economics?
Economics was defined by Alfred Marshall, one of the great Victorian economists as the study of mankind in the everyday business of life. There are other definitions too. But Marshall's definition draws attention to that unique feature of human society: that unlike other animals, man provides for his everyday needs by means of a complex pattern of production, distribution and exchange. This everyday business of providing the means of life is called by the general term "economy". Economics is the study of economies. We must study primitive economies, but it is the advanced economies that interest us most. How do we produce all the things that we need? How do we distribute the products among thaose various groups in society? What institutions have we developed to promote economic activity and how does each institution play its part in the complex relationships of everyday life?
Economics is a science.
This science is based upon the facts of our everyday lives. Economists study our everyday lives. The economist tries to describe the facts of the economy in which we live. He tries to explain how the system works. His methods should be objective and scientific. We need food, clothes and shelter. If we could get food, clothes and shelter without working, we probably would not work. But even when we have these essential things, we may want other things. If we had them, these other things (like radios, books and toys for children) might make life more enjoyable. The science of economics is concerned with all our material needs and wants. It is not just concerned with basic needs like food, clothes and shelter.
Most people work to earn a living, and produce goods and services. Goods are either agricultural (like maize and milk) or manufactured (like cars and paper). Services are such things as education, medicine and commerce. Some people provide goods; some provide services. Other people provide both goods and services. For example, in the same garage a man may buy a car or some services which helps him to maintain his car.
The work people do is called economic activity. All economic activities together make up the economic system of a town, a city, a country, or the world. Such an economic system is the sum-total of what people do and what they want. The work people undertake either they can buy essential commodities. Of course, most people hope to earn enough money to buy commodities and services which are non-essential but which provide some particular personal satisfaction, like toys for children, visits to the cinema and books.
Learn the vocabulary
to earn one's living - зарабатывать на жизнь
services - услуги
goods - товар, товары
syn commodity, produce
to produce (v) - производить
syn. to manufacture
produce (n) - продукция, продукт
to provide - обеспечивать
to maintain - поддерживать, содержать
to make up (v) - составлять
sum-total - общая сумма
to undertake (v) - предпринять
to need (v) - нуждаться
need (n) - потребность
science - наука
scientific - научный
life - жизнь
to live (v) - жить
lives (n) - жизни, (v) - живет ( 3 л., ед. ч. )
food - пища
clothes - одежда
shelter - кров, жилище
essential things - вещи первой необходимости
material wants - материальные потребности
basic needs - основные потребности
Three economic issues
We have come to expect that an economy that is operating well will generate high and rising incomes, that most of the people who want jobs will have them, that there will be reasonable stability of prices and that our economic relations with other countries will be in reasonable balance. Total income and production are the most important indicators of aggregate economic conditions, because they measure our society's ability to command economic resources. How much is available to spend on the consumption goods we enjoy? How much government spending can be made? How much shall we invest to maintain or increase production in the future? Are we borrowing from the rest of the world because we can't produce all that we spend, or are we lending and investing overseas because we are not spending all that we produce?
The central problem of economics is to determine the most efficient ways to allocate the factors of production and solve the problem of scarcity created by society's unlimited wants and limited resources. In doing so, every society must provide answers to the following three questions:
What goods and services are to be produced and in what quantities?
How are those goods and services to be produced?
Who will receive and consume those goods and services?
The "what" question is question of what to produce and in what amount. Resources have alternative uses: land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship in one combination can be used to produce cars, aspirin, clothes and other various goods. Since resources are limited and the society can't have everything, it must choose not only which of all the many possible goods will be produced but also the particular quantity of each good.
The "how" question is basically a question of production. How is each good to be produced? Which resources are to be used in the production of the good and which technology or method of production will be employed?
The "who" question is a question of distribution. Who, for example, will ride in limousines, who will have to use public transport, and who will have to walk?
There are many potential ways of distribution but there is no "right" method. The method selected will reflect the values of the society. The process to answer these three economic questions involves many various difficulties, that is why it is not easy to organize such a process.