Read the text about economics.

I THINK AND SAY

1 Can you imagine people without any wants?

2 What are everyday human wants? Can you divide them into material and social?

3 Does the science of economics deal with the material or social wants?

4 Can you see any difference between the terms “economy” and “economics”?

II READ AND TALK

Read the words and their translation, memorize them.

wants -- потреби

shelter – притулок

scarсe -- обмежений, недостатній

essential – суттєвий

demand – попит, потреба

profit – прибуток

cash – готівка

consumer – споживач

consumption – споживання

aggregate – сукупність

household – домашнє господарство

output – випуск, продуктивність

to exchange – обмінювати

to employ – використовувати, залучати

to measure -- вимірювати

Read and translate word combinations.

biological beings, goods and services, standard of living, tools and machinery, mineral deposit, analytical skills, to satisfy needs, economic system, credit card, practical benefits, to consume goods, total output, total income, level of prices, to measure the price, to be in demand, to pay cash.

Read the text about economics.

As biological beings, people need only air, water, food, clothing and shelter. But, living in a society, we also need many goods and services to have comfort and a high standard of living. Society has productive resources – labor and talent for management, tools and machinery, land and mineral deposits – which are used to produce goods and services. This production satisfies many of our material wants and it operates through the organizational mechanism called the economic system or, the economy.

In reality, however, the total of all our material wants is many times greater than the productive capacity of our limited resources. The satisfaction of all material resources is impossible. Thus we may have our definition of economics: the social science concerned with the efficient use of limited or scarce resources to achieve maximum satisfaction of human material wants.

Why is economics so important in the modern world?

A basic understanding of economics is essential because most of today’s political problems have important economic aspects. Studying economics helps students improve their analytical skills, which are in great demand in the workplace today. Also, the study of economics helps us understand the everyday activity around us.

The economists need principles – generalizations about the way individuals and institutions behave. The process of deriving principles is called theoretical economics or economic analysis. Economic principles and theories are statements about economic behavior or the economy. They are supported by facts concerning how individuals and institutions actually behave in producing, exchanging and consuming goods and services.

Applied economics or policy economics studies the principles and data which can be used to formulate policies. Economic policy is a course of actions based on economic principles to solve a specific problem or nation’s economic goals.

Economics derive and apply principles about economic behavior at two levels: macroeconomic and microeconomic.

Macroeconomics studies either the economy as a whole or its basic subdivisions or aggregates such as the government, household, and business sectors. Macroeconomics tries to obtain general outline of the structure of the economy and the relationships of its basic aggregates. It speaks of such economic factors as total output, total employment, total income, and the general level of prices in analyzing various economic problems.

Microeconomics looks at specific economic units. In microeconomics we talk of an individual industry, firm or household. We measure the price of a specific product, a number of workers employed by a single firm or income of a particular firm or household. In microeconomics we examine the trees, not the forest.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29