ECN 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Science, Rationality, Opportunity Cost
Document Summary
Thinking about people: focus is on the individual. Individual has values makes choices and takes action. Social goals reflect individual values; society is not independent from individuals. Summary: people have desires, scarcity of means in relation to desires( demand) creates the economic problem, people know what they want and try to fulfill as many desires are possible. Thinking about costs: choosing one alternative means giving up another alternative = cost( opportunity cost, cost is also a constraint on action. Will you buy something or take a particular courses of action: nothing is free there is no free lunch , money is only one means of measuring cost. Rich people"s time is more valuable and limited than poor people. I. e poor people time = hr i. e rich people time = an hr ? don"t want to waste a lot of time. Rich peoples time is more valuable because they are able to produce more.