1.1 Start Up: Economics in the News

In the best of times and in the worst of times, economic issues dominate the news. What’s happening in the job market, how fast the economy is growing, the prices and availability of the products we want, the level of the national debt—these are just a few examples of economic topics you’re likely to find discussed on your favorite news site’s homepage. These issues not only affect us as individuals, but also affect the overall well-being of society. 

If you’re interested in learning more about these topics, this book covers them extensively. But economics is a field that encompasses so much more! As scientists who study how people make choices, economists investigate the nature of family life, obesity, education, discrimination, and even war. There are weather economists, traffic economists, sports economists—there’s even an Association of Wine Economists! The list of things economists study is practically limitless, because so much of our lives involves making choices.

Consider some of the choices you face. Would you like better grades? More time to binge-watch Netflix? There’s a choice: Getting better grades probably requires more time studying, time you could have spent binge-watching Game of Thrones. We face these kinds of choices as individuals, but we also must make choices as a society. Do we want a cleaner environment? Faster economic growth? Both are desirable, but efforts to ratchet up economic growth may take a toll on the natural world we enjoy. Society, like you, must make choices.

Economics is defined less by the subjects economists investigate than by how economists investigate them. Economists look differently at the world than ordinary people do. Economists even study issues differently than scholars in other disciplines. This special perspective—the economic way of thinking—is the subject of this chapter.