Scarcity E. Napp

Today’s Reflection: The student sighed, “There are just not enough hours in the day.” I am sure you have heard the words before or said those very same words yourself. There are just not enough hours in the day or enough dollars in our pockets or enough weeks in a year. We always want more, more time and more money. If we could just have more, we could get everything we wanted done and have everything we wanted. But that is not the nature of life. The nature of life is that our wants and desires are always greater than our resources. We always want more than we have. If we lived in a magical world, we could wave our magical wands and never need to study Economics because we would have all of our hearts’ desires fulfilled. Yet there is no magical wand. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many dollars in our pockets. The world is a world of limited resources and our minds are minds of unlimited desires.

Scarcity is the fundamental reality of life. In Economics, scarcity is the realization that there are limited quantities of resources to meet unlimited wants and desires. As a result of scarcity, individuals have to make choices. How will we spend our twenty-four hours every day? How will we spend the money in our wallets? Yes, Economics is the study of the choices we make because scarcity exists.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today’s Key Terms:

Scarcity The realization that resources are limited but our wants are unlimited We always want more than we have

Economics: The study of choice The study of how people satisfy their wants and needs by making choices’

Need Is something like air, food, or shelter; it is something that is necessary for survival

Want A want is an item that we desire; a want is not essential for survival

Goods and Services Goods are physical objects such as clothes or shoes; services are actions or activities

that one person performs for another personShortage

While every good and service is scarce because all resources are scarce, a shortage refers to a situation where a good or service that is normally available is suddenly unavailable

Scarcity is permanent but shortages are temporary Wars or droughts can lead to shortages Shortages can lead to high prices due to insufficient supplies

Questions:1- Can we have everything we want?

2- Create a list of five choices made in the past twenty-four hours:

3- What is the difference between a need and a want?

4- Provide examples of needs:

5- Identify examples of wants:

6- How do goods differ from services?

7- Give two examples of goods.

8- Give two examples of services:

9- What is a shortage?

10- How does a shortage differ from scarcity?

11- Whenever a good or service is created, an entrepreneur (a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses) combines the Factors of Production. Define each of the following factors of production:

Land:

Labor:

Capital:

12- Identify a famous entrepreneur and explain the difference between human and physical capital.

1. Limited quantities of resources to meet unlimited wants is a(1) Shortage.(2) Scarcity.(3) Good.(4) Need.

2. Something such as air, food, or shelter that is necessary for survival is a(1) Need.(2) Want.(3) Good.(4) Service.

3. Which of the following is an example of a shortage?(1) the price of oil going up because more people are driving cars(2) the price of grain going down when supplies are scarce(3) having a sale on soda because there are too many cases on the shelf(4) not having enough of one brand of soda in the store on Saturday because of a sale on

4. Natural resources that are used to make goods and services are considered(1) Equipment.(2) Money.(3) Labor.(4) Land.

5. Why are individuals, companies, and governments required to constantly make choices about how to best utilize resources?(1) There is always a shortage of resources.(2) There is always a scarcity of resources.(3) They all have more needs than wants.(4) They all have more wants than needs.

6. Physical objects such as clothes or shoes are defined as(1) Goods.(2) Needs.(3) Wants.(4) Services.

7. Why are scarcity and choice basic to the study of economics?(1) because there is not an endless supply of all resources(2) because there is an endless supply of all resources(3) because most people have limited wants and needs(4) because they are important factors of production

8. Which of the following is NOT a factor of production?(1) the land required for a hog farm(2) the training required to repair an airplane engine(3) the teacher required to teach an economics class(4) the amount of money required to buy a car

9. Which of the following is an entrepreneur?(1) a lawyer for an insurance company who wins a medical malpractice suit(2) an advertising copy writer who writes an award-winning commercial(3) a computer repair shop owner who opens a second shop across town(4) a doctor who volunteers her services in the aftermath of a hurricane

10. Any human-made resource that is used to create other goods and/or services is(1) A service.(2) An entrepreneur.(3) Capital.(4) Labor.

11. Why are there not enough hours in the day?(1) Because scarcity exists.(2) Because shortages exist.(3) Because of Daylight Savings Time.(4) Because the factors of production are unlimited.

Explain the economic meaning of the cartoon.

Explain the economic meaning of the cartoon.