Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Very worthy of discussion, from Ellen:

>alright i have a question.. i was discussing this with a fellow classmate earlier and i was just >wondering if its possible to live without having economics involved. we were saying even if you >live out in the woods in a secluded area in a cardboard box you can't get away from economics >(assuming you aren't starving yourself) because if you go looking for berries or something, well >there is still supply and demand involved.. so is it possible?

Hmmm....

4 comments:

domino said...

beyond supply and demand, searching for berries involves an opportunity cost. for example, the opportunity cost of spending time scavenging for berries is finding a fresh water source, building a shelter, and/or planting a garden to feed you in the future.

as far as supply and demand go, there is definitely still a demand, i don't think it's possible to be alive and not have a demand of some sort. but i'm not sure about supply. unless the forest counts as a business in this case?

i guess my answer would be: no, it is not possible to live without economics being involved. i do think it is possible to live without ever studying supply and demand curves, tho....

Ashley said...

I'm not sure how to answer Ellen's question. Orginally i was going to say no, you can't. But on second thought i think you can. Economics to me involves tradeoffs between people, as well as supply and demand involves more than one person. In away picking berries is a supply and demand, but i cant get away from economics dealing with more than one person. A lot of economics deals with studying the interaction of people. How can you have exchanges and tradeoffs with production if its you and woods? Really good question!

KM said...

If a tree falls in the woods, would it make a sound? Ha!

Economics can be a very personal thing. The definition of econ involves decision-making, whether there's another person involved or not. :)

Domino...i'm sorry the S & D curves are giving you headaches. Look at it like this: You weren't challenged in WS, so I had to challenge you with something!

We'll practice more today. No worries yet if you don't get it. I"ll let you know when to worry. :)

Smile! It's...well, it is only Wednesday... Smile anyway!

D Mac said...

i'll say no, it wouldn't be possible for a person to survive anywhere without economics. even if you look at supply and demand as between more than one person, as ashley said, living in the wild would still require one to evaluate how to best to use their time, be it gathering food, looking for things to build a shelter, or whatever. since this evaluation is really the same thing as finding opportunity cost of one person doing many different things, economics is still involved.