The Nature, Scope and Methods of Economics Essay Example for Free

The Nature, Scope and Methods of Economics Essay Most introductory textbooks of Economics begin by asking the question ‘What is Economics about? ’ Although Economics is a vast subject and precise definitions are usually complex and controversial, it is not a difficult matter to give a simple and sensible answer to this basic question. Economics is essentially a study of the ways in which people provide for their well-being. Economists are concerned with the study of human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses’ (Lionel Robbins). Economics can be divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of individual markets. (A market is an arrangement which links buyers and sellers. ) For instance, an economist may study the market for compact discs. This will involve looking at the decisions and behavior of people who buy compact discs, the firms that sell the compact discs and any other groups which influence the price and availability of compact discs, such as the government While macroeconomics is the study of the whole economy. It includes, for example, the study of the nature, causes, consequences of unemployment, inflation, economic growth and international trade and government policy.Economics, both macro- and microeconomics, is about the satisfaction of wants. It is necessary to be quite clear about this; it is people’s wants rather than their needs which provide the motive for economic activity. People go to work in order to obtain an income which will buy them the things they want rather than the things they need. It is not possible to define ‘need’ in terms of any particular quantity of a product, because this would imply that a certain level of consumption is right’ for an individual. Economists tend to avoid this kind of value judgment which tries to specify how much people ought to consume. It is assumed that individuals wish to enjoy as much well-being as possible, and if their consumption of food, clothing, entertainment and other goods and services is less than the amount required to give them complete satisfaction they will want more of them. Resources are scarce when they are insufficient to satisfy people’s wants. Scarcity is a relative concept. It relates the extent of people’s wants to their ability to satisfy those wants. Neither people’s wants nor their ability to produce goods and services are constant. Most countries’ productive potential is increasing but so is the appetite of their citizens for goods and services. When a certain living standard is reached, people strive for even better living conditions. A good example of this is health care. As medical science and technology advances, people expect more ailments to be treated. So scarcity is a feature of all societies from the poorest to the most affluent. CHOICE:- The resources available to satisfy people’s wants are, at anytime, limited in supply. As most people cannot have all the goods and services they want, they have to make choices. With no rise in income, if someone wants to buy, for instance, a new coat they may have to spend less on eating out for a while. Similarly with limited resources, if a country wishes to devote more resources to health care it will have to reduce the resources it devotes to, for example, education. In considering scarcity and choice economists make use of opportunity cost. This is a very important concept in economics. It makes clear the true resource cost of any economic decision. For instance, building a new hospital may mean that the construction of a stretch of motorway has to be postponed. So opportunity cost is the cost in terms of the best alternative forgone. For example, if a person buys a watch it may cost ? 50 but what is more significant is what has to be given up to make the purchase. This may be the opportunity to purchase a pair of shoes or the opportunity to have extra leisure instead of working to earn the. In the case of the vast majority of goods and services, resources have to be used in order to produce them. For example, to provide health care requires the use of labor in the form of doctors and nurses, land on which the hospital is built and capital in the form of beds, operating tables, dialysis machines and other equipment. So the production of most goods and services involves an opportunity cost — the resources employed could be put to other uses. These products are called economic goods. However there are a few goods which do not involve an opportunity cost, for example sea water and sunshine. This is because they do not require resources to produce them — they are in existence naturally. These products are known as free goods.

managerial accounting Essay -- essays research papers

Austin Watches is a start-up watch producer and distribution company. Its strategy is to serve the upscale niche markets of the watch industry. It will capitalize on the German engineering and manufacturing used to build the watches. There are many untapped potential markets within this industry that desire high-quality, stylish goods, but do not think they can afford them or do not know where to purchase them. It is the firm's intention to build and export its products to the United States and to make Austin Watches the number one selling European watch in the Western U.S. To do this the company's long-term goals are to achieve a 20% market share in the U.S, build brand image and brand equity through marketing, achieve a sustainable 55% profit margin, and eventually produce luxury watches in addition to the initial, moderately-priced line. Mission Austin Watches is a watch company that produces wristwatches for sale in the United States - initially in California. The company will build its image, as a quality watch first, and then will begin selling higher profit, luxury watches. Austin Watches sells quality watches and provides excellent customer service for customers seeking a reliable watch. In the future Austin Watches intends to enter the luxury watch market The Company and Ownership Austin Watches is a privately owned international corporation. Production takes place in Germany and sales and marketing are focused in California, United States, for the short-term...

Exploring the theme of guilt in the fifth business and macbeth

This paper will explore the theme of guilt in the stories of â€Å"Macbeth† by William Shakespeare and the â€Å"Fifth Business† by Robertson Davies. More specifically, this paper claims the guilt is a powerful emotion that can destroy a person. Basically, guilt in the context of the two stories led to devastations and up to some extent the ultimate downfall of a person. Moreover, guilt is confronted by people in different ways. Some would have a difficult time getting over it while others would easily get rid of it. And finally, it is the guilt of a person that serves as a catalyst to his suffering which is most of the time, on the emotional aspect On the story of Macbeth, guilt is found on the act of killing. The protagonist of the story, Macbeth, was persuaded to kill King Duncan of Scotland as well as his guard due to the persuasion of the three witches and his wife. But after the deed was done, Macbeth was guilt stricken. This is evident on the absent-mindedness nature of Macbeth after committing murder. In fact, after immediately killing the King, Macbeth is still carrying the bloodied daggers which are supposed to be planted on the guards of the King. Because of this, Lady Macbeth has to return into the King’s chamber to plant the daggers and even smear blood on the guards. It was noted that Macbeth has told her wife that he could not bring himself to return at the room anymore. In addition, even before the act of killing the King, Macbeth already feels guilty to what he will do. This is depicted on Act II, Scene II, Line 42 and 43 of the novel. It was declared in these lines that he heard of a voice saying that he has â€Å"murdered sleep† and that he â€Å"shall sleep no more†. Even after Macbeth became a King, the guilt feeling still lingered. It has even aggravated by his hallucinations with his order of killing Banquo. Furthermore, even Lady Macbeth has suddenly felt remorse with their deed. As a matter of fact, Lady Macbeth’s conscience has been irrelevant on their earlier part of the story. Eventually, she was also guilt-stricken thus having hallucinations and other vivid forms of imagination. At the end of the story, both of the Macbeths suffered a painful death which is a result of their deed in killing King Duncan. Meanwhile, the story of the Fifth Business tells about the guilt felt by Dunstable Ramsay towards a woman named Mary Dempster. Basically, when Ramsay and his friend, Percy Boyd Staunton, are snow fighting, they accidentally hit Mrs. Dempster who is pregnant at this time. Because of this, the act resulted to the very problematic as well as premature labor of Mrs. Dempster to his child, Paul Dempster. Unlike his friend Staunton, Ramsay was very guilty to what happened because he was the one who is supposedly hit by the snowball. This is evident in his lines, â€Å"I was contrite and guilty, for I knew the snowball had been meant for me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Davies, p. 3). From then on, everything had changed especially on the family of Mrs. Dempster. These changes had greatly affected Ramsay which caused him great emotional suffering. Although Ramsay was not directly affected by the changes in the family of Mrs. Dempster, he was nonetheless indirectly hit hard by these changes. More specifically, after the premature labor of Paul Dempster, Mrs. Dempster has become what they call a ‘simple-minded fool’ or a plagued with ‘madness’. This condition was perceived by Ramsay to be a lifelong responsibility to take care for Mrs. Dempster, thus offering some help in the chores of the Dempster household. Furthermore, Paul Dempster ran away from home even before he reached the age of ten (10). This is because of the Mr. Dempster blames him for the things that happened to his wife after giving birth to him. Specifically, he blames him for his mother’s madness. In fact, this blaming is complicated by the cruel jokes of people to Mrs. Dempster who thinks there is something funny about her. All throughout his life, Ramsay felt guilty to the many things that happened after the untimely labor of Mrs. Dempster. This is proclaimed in his lines delivered to Staunton that, â€Å"[This] is the stone you put in the snowball you threw at Mrs. Dempster†¦ I've kept it because I couldn't part with it.† (Davies, p. 270) In other words, up to the end of the story, Ramsay was not able to get rid of the guilt he felt toward the incident that happened during his snow fighting. Indeed, the theme of guilt is relevant on the two stories. On Macbeth, the protagonist of the story, Macbeth, was guilt stricken for killing the King in order to get his throne. In the long run, he was not able to get rid of this guilt thus contributing to his downfall. The same is true with the fate of her wife, Lady Macbeth, who committed suicide because of her guilt, which she was not able to contain. On the story of the Fifth Business, the protagonist, Ramsay, was also unsuccessful in getting rid of his guilt despite the efforts he had done in order to reconcile with it. In a nutshell, guilt can be concluded as a strong emotional force which can significantly shape the lives of every man. This is especially true in the case of people who are guilt-stricken. All their lives, they will be haunted by their conscience because of what they have done. And most of the time, it is their guilt that dictates the tempo of their life. As such, they become forever bound with the power of guilt. REFERENCES Davies, Robertson. (2001). Fifth Business.   New York: Gail Godwin Shakespeare, William. (1992). Macbeth. Ed. by Barabara Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Press.

developing critical thinking - 2667 Words

Paul Fieldsend DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING Be able to critically assess own beliefs, attitudes and value systems THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BELIEFS, VALUE AND ATTITUDES Beliefs, attitudes and values are three little words that have and make a massive impact on who we are as individuals, who we are as people, and even how the world is viewed by ourselves and others. A belief is something that individuals or groups think, such as believing in a god. Where a Value would be the living life in the ways a religion expects, this value will be made from the belief that the person or group has in their God. The attitude towards this would be the feelings, beliefs and behaviour tendencies towards this, for example praying, reading the holy book,†¦show more content†¦That said the thief maybe a first and one time offender and has other issues I do not know about so my attitude towards that is based on a very stereotypical generalisation, as it is something I would not do. However the fact that I would not do it shows that my attitude toward not stealing is a positive one. It is possible though that our own attitudes can be so strong that we become ign orant to other peoples values, opinions and needs. A strong attitude is often referred to as a value, where as an attitude with little significance or importance, are often described as opinions. Beliefs, values, attitudes and the impact on my behaviour. There are just several beliefs, Values and attitudes that I hold that impact on my behaviour, not just to the way I act towards my everyday tasks, but also the way I act around my team and my customers/clients and suppliers. The first is manners, I believe that people should treat others the way they wish to be treated themselves, so regardless of the situation I am always polite, courteous and professional in my approach. The value I hold regarding customers and clients, they are king and without them there would be no us as a company. I believe my team are the most important factor within our branch, so they are consulted about any major decisions we implement, just because I think it is a great idea to change something doesn’t necessarily mean that it is, after all myShow MoreRelated Developing Critical Thinking Essay1135 Words   |  5 PagesA person is not born as a good critical thinker. The first thing that is needed is a level of maturity having the ability to conce ptualize and understand the world (Boss, 2010). The skills that are associated with a person that has good critical thinking are: Analytical Skills: recognize and evaluate arguments to filter through to the truth. Effective Communication: ability to listen, speak, and write effectively. 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