The And Trade With The Americas - 1468 Words

Many times the first thing that is equated to the exploration and trade with the Americas is gold. Although it is true, that the conquistadors and explorers were in search of riches, they did not confine themselves to only precious metals. They quickly worked to capitalise on all of the foodstuff that could be found in the New World. Two examples of foods that have shaped our global economy are sugar and salt. Although they have recently become so common that they are frequently ignored, these simple items have helped build empires, established global trades, and in turn has aided in the creation of a world interconnected by food. Before we can look at the impact it has had, it should be discussed why these food items are important. Salt has become equated with commonality in the last century. This was not the case though for the millennia beforehand. As a necessary mineral to maintain life, salt has been hunted and searched for as long as time itself. Mark Kurlansky explained in his writing on the subject that, â€Å"whoever controlled salt was in power.† This statement has been proven correct time, and time again, when those who are attempting to attain sovereignty, often will begin with maintaining control over the salt. Comparatively, sugar is not necessarily essential to human survival. It has other draws for humans though, due to the addictive effects that it has, and its ability to sweeten even the blandest foods. Although sugar has been present in diets before hand, â€Å"byShow MoreRelatedAmerica s Trade Area Of The Americas1494 Words   |  6 PagesHistory Latin America is composed of seventeen countries which was colonized by Spain’s and Portugal. They are large in diverse population with four hundred and ninety million people in total. The percentage of the Indian and African that lives in Latin America is basically seventy-five percent just in the cities. The industrial and development grew since the 1960’s; also the free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposes to integrate economies of Latin America, North America and the Caribbean (exceptRead MoreThe Free Trade Area Of The Americas935 Words   |  4 PagesThe Free Trade Area of the Americas Introduction The Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement (FTAA), was first introduced in 1994 with intentions of finalizing the deal by 2005. However, the agreement failed to pass due to the backlash of some of the Latin American countries involved, especially Venezuela and its President of the time, Hugo Chavez, who held a strong vocal opposition of the free trade agreement (The Defeat of the FTAA). In this paper I will discuss the history of the FTAA, aboutRead MoreTrade And Manufacturing In America Essay1249 Words   |  5 PagesTrade and Manufacturing in United States and Effects on the Economy The action of buying and selling goods and services in America during the colonial and early republic era helped establish the United States’ economy and found the nation as a world power. Before the founding of European colonies into Northern, America trade was plentiful in the Americas. The Spanish had discovered the New World and during their exploration had brought over and traded with Native Americans. The New and Old WorldsRead MoreCentral America Free Trade Agreement1242 Words   |  5 PagesCentral America Free Trade Agreement and Its Economic Impact Overview Negotiations started in early 2004 on the Central America Free Trade Agreement, later on in the negotiation process the Dominican Republic joined to make CAFTA-DR. The original countries that made up CAFTA were Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with the Dominican Republic joining forces later on. CAFTA was coupled together with NAFTA and the Canada-Costa Rica Trade Agreement separating them from theRead MoreProtectionism and Free Trade in America Essay2087 Words   |  9 Pagesregarding protectionism and free trade in America can be traced back to our Founding Fathers. The first significant legislation passed by the First congress in 1789 and signed into law by President Washington on July Fourth was a protectionist tariff that provided for over 90 percent of the revenues to operate the new government and encouraged the building of industries and development of family farms. In contrast, Benjamin Franklin, who understood the danger of trade restrictions s aid, â€Å"No nation isRead MoreAmerica s Trade Organization For Violating Free Trade Agreements923 Words   |  4 Pages2002, the United States of America passed a policy that granted United States farmers access to subsidies, in order to protect the domestic market in agriculture. In retaliation to this policy being passed the Brazilian government sued the United States in the court under the World Trade Organization for violating free trade agreements. The Brazilian government claimed that the United States was liberalizing its trade, making it unfair in a free market. The World Trade Organization enacted punitiveRead MoreTrade Between China And Latin America1162 Words   |  5 PagesIn 1999, trade between China and Latin America totaled approximately $8 billion; by 2009, that number had had grown to $130 billion. Earlier this year, a study by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) concluded that by the year 2016, trade betw een China and Latin America will surpass that between the Eurozone and Latin America, making China Latin America’s second largest trading partner. Most studies of this partnership have focused on: a growing securityRead MoreAmerica s Free Trade Agreement1614 Words   |  7 Pagesuntil when NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement, was implemented between the United States, Mexico, and Canada (The Other Side of Immigration). Urrea states â€Å"you’d think that at least there would be beans to eat, but the great Mexican bean-growing industrial farms sold much of their crop to the United States† (45). Since then, most Mexicans, especially those people from Veracruz, was affected. Even though the primary reason for this agreement was to eliminate trade and investment barriers betweenRead MoreFree Trade During Americas Interest2098 Words   |  9 Pages Free trade in Americas interest â€Å"No nation was ever ruined by trade,† stated Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century. Franklin s maxim is just as true today as it was in the 18th century in that trade is enriching nearly all nations today. In the past ten years free trade has done more to alleviate poverty than any well-intentioned law, regulation, or social policy in history. Even the United States benefits from opening its markets to free trade. Two epochal forces are sweeping the world today:Read MoreEssay on Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)1587 Words   |  7 Pagesthirty-four democratic countries of the Western Hemisphere launched the process of creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA will be established by 2010 with the aim of gradually eradicating barriers to trade and investment in the region. The final characteristics of the FTAA will be determined through negotiations by government officials from the thirty-four participating countries. The trade issues that are presently under discussion are: market access; investment; services; government

The 2050 Food Security Challenge - 1292 Words

The 2050 Food Security Challenge, is one of the most widely known and concerning issues of the 21st century due to its vast potential of impacting the entire earth. In an analysis titled â€Å"Solutions for a Cultivated Planet,† Foley et al. (2011) note that it as â€Å"one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century† (p. 1). In summary, the issue addresses the need for massive expansion of food production in order to accommodate our ever-growing population. By 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9-10 billion people, an increase of approximately 35% in 33 years (FAO, p. 2). As a result, a large increase in food production is required, while using less land, less water, decreasing the overall environmental impact, improving†¦show more content†¦83-84). Currently certified organic land is approximately 37 million hectares or 91.4 million acres, accounting for 0.9% of all agricultural land (Niggli, 2014, p. 84). Although relatively small in comparison to conventional farming, Niggli emphasises the importance of organic production in feeding the growing population. Overall, he supports his claim with three major points; the lower environmental impacts, the environmental benefits and the potential for growth. Niggli (2014) begins by stressing the multi-functionality of organic production and states, â€Å"Organic agriculture produces both commodity and non-commodity outputs and addresses ethical concerns such as animal welfare and the livelihoods of farmers† (p. 84). He continues by discussing the how organic production allows for natural growth and biodiversity due to regular crop rotation, as well as restrictions on pesticides and herbicides. Additionally, bans on chemical fertilizers decrease nitrogen leaches by 35-65%, all of which help maintain soil and drinking water quality (Niggli, 2014, p.84). In general, the natural methods that are pursued through organic production have a si gnificantly lower environmental impact. In addition to the lowered environmental impact, Niggli discusses the environmental benefits.Show MoreRelatedFood Production And Its Effects On The World Essay1542 Words   |  7 PagesFood Production At this moment around one billion individuals experience the ill effects of unending appetite. the world s agriculturists develop enough sustenance to bolster them, however it is not legitimately circulated and, regardless of the fact that it were, numerous can t bear the cost of it, since costs are heightening. However, another test looms. By 2050 the world s populace will increment by two billion or three billion, which will probably twofold the interest for nourishment, as indicatedRead MoreThe Hunger Of Hunger And Malnutrition1429 Words   |  6 PagesFood security is said to be attained when all people are able to access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life. However, food security is challenged by various factors across production and consumption. Food production, trade, the environmental impact of agriculture, the threat of climate change, and the factors that affect food prices are all largely global in nature – there is no sing le solution that any one country can enact to ensure access to affordableRead MoreInsects: Food of the Future862 Words   |  3 Pagesthe demand for food is increasing. The human population is anticipated to grow from six billion in 2000 to nine billion in 2050. Meat production is predicted to double within the same amount, as demand grows from rising wealth. Pastures and fodder already deplete seventy percent of all agricultural land, therefore increasing livestock production would need increasing agricultural land area at the expense of rain forests and different natural lands. Officers at the United Nations Food associated AgricultureRead MoreThe World in 20501467 Words   |  6 PagesThe World in 2050 Futurism is an Italian fine arts movement that was founded in 1909. Poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti began the movement to celebrate modern technology and to free Italian art from the psychology of the past. Futurism influenced the 20th century’s art and design, which opened doors for the movements related to sculpture, theater, architecture, fashion, and music. Futurist principles value the science of computer programming; they believe that computers will make a significantRead MoreIs Food Production A Growing Concern?1473 Words   |  6 Pagespopulation is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050. Will we be able to feed everyone, what are the problems likely to be and what do we need to overcome these problems?† Undoubtedly food production is becoming a growing concern as factors such as the rapidly growing global population and changing diets within developing countries stretch current production techniques to the limit. The total global human population is expected to increase by 34% by 2050 with this growth occurring predominately inRead MoreThe Dangers Of Hunger And Malnutrition1432 Words   |  6 PagesPROBLEM: Food security is said to be attained when â€Å"all people are able to access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life†. However, food security is challenged by various factors across production and consumption. Food production, trade, the environmental impact of agriculture, the threat of climate change, and the factors that affect food prices are all largely global in nature – there is no single solution that any one country can enact to ensure access toRead MoreThe Consequences Of The Globes Meat Consumption1363 Words   |  6 Pagesimportant challenge facing international relations today. Agriculture and more specifically animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to human made climate change. This is important for international relations because animal agriculture effects trade, global food security and the global economy. With the population growing at a rapid pace the demand on animal agricuture is also rapidly in creasing. This essay will discuss the consequences of the globes meat consumption and the challenge it posesRead MoreSanger Automotive Companies: the Fisker Franchise Decision631 Words   |  3 PagesNational Agro-Food Policy (2011-2020) in Agriculture Sector In Malaysia, agriculture remains an important sector and it plays role as food providers, create employments and generate earnings from export products. The development of the agricultural sector is generally governed by a comprehensive and market driven agricultural policies. The agricultural policies were formulated and have enabled the agricultural sector to grow sustainably and also contributed to economy development in Malaysia. TheRead MoreMaintaining Agricultural Farmlands for the Worlds Growing Population1736 Words   |  7 Pages This has also led to many shortages of food, due to high demand because of the increasing population. Demographists worry that if this growing issue continues to hurt food consumption of povertized countries, than there will be more deaths because the population is increasing, but the food levels are staying the same, or even decreasing. Some of these demographists believe that this is occurring, because the developed countries are intaking too mu ch food. Others believe that this is because of theRead MoreEssay Agriculture in The rural areas of Madhya Pradesh1432 Words   |  6 Pagesfor livelihood. Due to climate change, these natural-resource based livelihood sources are expected to be impacted more than the other sectors. Water is a critical resource in the state because several regions such as Bundelkhand suffer the dual challenges of scanty rainfalls and high run-off rates. The state is drained by rain-fed rivers and receives 1160 mm average rainfall annually (MP Resource Atlas 2007, MPCST). The climate data analyzed by IITM Pune indicates a declining trend for rainfall over

The Catcher in the Rye Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a classic coming-of-age story. Narrated by sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, the novel paints a portrait of a struggling teenage boy as he attempts to hide his emotional pain behind cynicism and false worldliness. Through the use of symbolism, slang, and an unreliable narrator, Salinger explores themes of innocence vs. phoniness, alienation, and death. Innocence vs. Phoniness If you had to choose one word to represent The Catcher in the Rye, it would be phony, Holden Caufield’s insult of choice and a word he uses to describe most of the people he meets and much of the world he encounters. For Holden, the word implies artifice, a lack of authenticity—pretension. He views phoniness as a sign of growing up, as if adulthood were a disease and phoniness its most obvious symptom. He has moments of faith in younger people, but invariably condemns all the adults as phonies. The flip side of this is the value Holden puts on innocence, on being unspoiled. Innocence is typically assigned to children, and Holden is no exception, regarding his younger siblings as worthy of his affection and respect. His younger sister Phoebe is his ideal—she is intelligent and perceptive, talented and willful, but innocent of the terrible knowledge that Holden himself has gained with his extra six years (most notably concerning sex, which Holden wishes to protect Phoebe from). Holden’s dead brother, Allie, haunts him precisely because Allie will always be this innocent, being deceased. Part of Holden’s torment is his own phoniness. While he does not consciously indict himself, he engages in many phony behaviors that he would abhor if he were to observe them in himself. Ironically, this prevents him from being innocent himself, which explains to some degree Holden’s self-loathing and mental instability. Alienation Holden is isolated and alienated throughout the entire novel. There are hints that he is telling his story from a hospital where he is recovering from his breakdown, and throughout the story his adventures are consistently focused on making some sort of human connection. Holden self-sabotages constantly. He feels lonely and isolated at school, but one of the first things he tells us is that he’s not going to the football game everyone else is attending. He makes arrangements to see people, and then insults them and drives them away. Holden uses alienation to protect himself from mockery and rejection, but his loneliness drives him to keep trying to connect. As a result, Holden’s sense of confusion and alarm grows because he has no true anchor to the world around him. Since the reader is tied to Holden’s point-of-view, that terrifying sense of being completely cut off from everything, of everything in the world not making sense, becomes a visceral part of reading the book. Death Death is the thread that runs through the story. For Holden, death is abstract; he’s not primarily afraid of the physical facts of the end of life, because at 16 he can’t truly understand it. What Holden fears about death is the change that it brings. Holden continuously wishes for things to remain unchanged, and to be able to go back to better times—a time when Allie was alive. For Holden, Allie’s death was a shocking, unwanted change in his life, and he is terrified of more change—more death—especially when it comes to Phoebe. Symbols The Catcher in the Rye. There’s a reason this is the title of the book. The song Holden hears contains the lyric if a body meet a body, coming through the rye that Holden mishears as if a body catch a body. He later tells Phoebe that this is what he wishes to be in life, someone who catches the innocent if they slip and fall. The ultimate irony is that the song is about two people meeting for a sexual encounter, and Holden himself is too innocent to understand that. The Red Hunting Hat. Holden wears a hunting cap that he frankly admits is kind of ridiculous. For Holden it is a sign of his otherness and his uniqueness—his isolation from others. Notably, he removes the hat whenever he is meeting someone he wants to connect with; Holden knows full well the hat is part of his protective coloring. The Carousel. The carousel is the moment in the story when Holden lets go of his sadness and decides he will stop running and grow up. Watching Phoebe ride it, he is happy for the first time in the book, and part of his happiness is imagining Phoebe grabbing for the gold ring—a risky maneuver that could get a kid a prize. Holden’s admission that sometimes you have to let kids take risks like that is his surrender to the inevitability of becoming an adult—and leaving childhood behind. Literary Devices Unreliable Narrator. Holden tells you he is the most terrific liar you ever saw. Holden lies constantly throughout the story, making up identities and masking the fact that he’s been kicked out of school. As a result, the reader can’t necessarily trust Holden’s descriptions. Are the people he calls phonies really bad, or is it just how Holden wants you to see them? Slang. The story’s slang and teenage vernacular are out of date today, but the tone and style were remarkable when it was published for the way Salinger captured the way a teenager sees and thinks about things. The result is a novel that still feels authentic and confessional despite the passage of time. Holden’s style of telling the story also underscores his character—he uses profanities and slang words very self-consciously to shock and to demonstrate his jaded and worldly ways. Salinger also employs the use of filler phrases in Holden’s story, which gives the narrative the feeling of being spoken, as if Holden were actually telling you this story in person.

Summary of Where are you going where have you been by...

Fallen Angel We all have been there. After a long days work, all we are thinking about is getting home. As you head towards your car, you notice the darkness around you and suddenly feel that you are not alone. Your pace increases and you begin to sweat mildly. If you could just get there, you’d be safe. Suddenly, you hear a noise and decide the best thing for you to do is ignore it. As you approach you car and unlock it, you sigh with relief that you’ve finally have made it. For many, our minds play tricks on us when we feel a moment of fear, however for others it may turn out to be their worst nightmare. In the story, â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† by Joyce Carol Oates, a young girl is forced to make a decision†¦show more content†¦Whereas Connie is considered beautiful, June is seen as â€Å"plain and chunky† (496). Regardless of their differences, both girls have one thing in common, they both love to spend time with friends and Connie uses this to her advantage. On several occasions, a friend’s father has left them off at the mall, however once they arrive, Connie travels across the street â€Å" to a drive-in restaurant where older kids hung out† ( 497). It is here that she comes into contact with her future assailant, but at the time she ignored his attention. As the story progresses, it is Sunday morning and her family is getting ready to attend a family bar-b-queue. However, Connie insists on not attending and is left alone at home. As she is washing her hair, she hears an unfamiliar car driving up to her house and her heart begins to pound for she does not want the visitor to see her undone. When Arnold Friend, a man she has seen at the restaurant before, but has never spoken to, shows up on her doorstep, she is someone curious as to why he is visiting her. Throughout the scene, he is attempting to persuade Connie into taking a ride with him and his friend Ellie. The m ore he speaks to her, he reveals to her that he knows many things about her such as her friends, her name, and family and where they are currently at. As the scene develops, Connie no longer has interest in Arnold for she now is scared and is fearful of what his intentions are. In the end, Arnold threatens ConnieShow MoreRelatedSummary and Continuation of the story: â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been† By Joyce Carol Oates1461 Words   |  6 PagesErika Villanueva â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been† By Joyce Carol Oates There are things that happen when we are growing up that change us when we are grown. There are things that change us forever. Every human being is different, and there is a reason why . All of us had a childhood and all kinds of experiences some good, some bad, some full of joy but also others very painful. Eventually we grow childhood and mature depending of what we have gone through. The way we are able to handleRead MoreSummary Of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?854 Words   |  4 PagesSummary: According to Barstow, Connie represents American innocence and powerlessness. Connie has a hard time defending herself against Arnold Friend because of her lack of knowledge and the impact of American culture. The mother-daughter relationship plays a significant role in the story because had Connie and her mother communicated better, Connie, who is still a child, would have be protected from the evil of the world. Barstow also points out that the modern American is unable to di stinguishRead MoreThe Journey to Adulthood in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates1119 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† Analysis In the American society, when individuals reach adolescence, they begin to search for their identity by exploring their interests and opening their mind to new notions and ideas. This is the psychological and physical human development that ultimately leads them to their adulthood. Joyce Carol Oates short story depicts a fifteen year old girl with typical teenage concerns. She has to face the realization of the meaning of maturity in the AmericanRead MoreNotes On The Novel Fences And Pied Piper Of Tucson 1080 Words   |  5 PagesStudents examine the ways in which mystery, tension, and surprise are used in informational and literary texts to engage and intrigue readers. First, students read short stories and poetry, including a close reading of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† and Mara Bovsun’s article, â€Å"Pied Piper of Tucson;† they identify and describe ways authors ‘hook and hold’ readers with specific choices. Next, students read the play Fences by Pulitzer Prize winner August WilsonRead MoreJoyce Carol Oates Is An American Writer Who Writes Poetry,2120 Words   |  9 PagesJoyce Carol Oates is an American writer who writes poetry, short stories, novels, and nonfiction. She published one of her short stories called: â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† in 1993. In this particular story, Oates writes about a young teenage girl, who in my perspective the fifteen-year-old girl liked getting the attention from everyone, especially from boys. Her name was Connie; the young girl who lived in her own little world dozing off most of the time, and always standing outRead MoreWhere Are You Going, Where Have You Been?1733 Words   |  7 PagesWhere there is desire, there is hope, despair, and struggle. Joyce Carol Oates illustrates animatedly the asphyxiated struggle of desire in her short story â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† The story narrates the life of a young girl, named Connie, and her fated and enigmatic con frontation with a strange man. Feeling trapped in her own home with her own family, Connie, a self-conscious and rebellious teenager, tries to figure out a way to identify herself with the world around her. HerRead MoreA Continued Study Of The Real Life Story Behind2311 Words   |  10 PagesDiana Dean ENG 1102 Sandra Rourke December 7, 2014 A CONTINUED STUDY OF THE REAL LIFE STORY BEHIND â€Å"WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?† AND OF SERIAL KILLERS IN GENERAL The name of the man behind Joyce Carol Oates’s short story, â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?† is Charles Schmid, Jr. or â€Å"Smitty† as he was called by most everyone who knew him. I use both names interchangeably. The names of Schmid’s victims were Alleen Rowe whom he killed on May 31, 1964, with the help of twoRead MoreAmerican Youth in the 1960s1593 Words   |  6 PagesAmerica has in a short time been established as a nation that symbolizes acceptance and change. It has progressed into a country of equality that finds its foundation in its personal freedoms and the progressive movement of technology, politics, economics, social views, ethics and so forth since the American Revolution. It has been changing rapidly since the influx of immigrants that came here before the Revolution. The 1950s were a happy time. I Love Lucy and Leave It To Beaver were on televisionRead MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12166 Words   |  49 Pagesretrieval s ystems without the written permission of the publisher. For complete copyright information on these eNotes please visit: http://www.enotes.com/worn−path/copyright Table of Contents 1. A Worn Path: Introduction 2. Eudora Welty Biography 3. Summary 4. Characters 5. Themes 6. Style 7. Historical Context 8. Critical Overview 9. Essays and Criticism 10. Compare and Contrast 11. Topics for Further Study 12. Media Adaptations 13. What Do I Read Next? 14. Bibliography and Further Reading 15. Copyright Read MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12173 Words   |  49 Pagesretrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher. For complete copyright information on these eNotes please visit: http://www.enotes.com/worn−path/copyright Table of Contents 1. A Worn Path: Introduction 2. Eudora Welty Biography 3. Summary 4. Characters 5. Themes 6. Style 7. Historical Context 8. Critical Overview 9. Essays and Criticism 10. Compare and Contrast 11. Topics for Further Study 12. Media Adaptations 13. What Do I Read Next? 14. Bibliography and Further Reading 15. Copyright

Introduction Part Chapter Free Essays

string(112) " the national economy and the global economy of the choices that individuals, businesses, and governments make\." INTRODUCTION PART CHAPTER Getting Started CHAPTER 1 1 CHECKLIST When you have completed your study of this chapter, you will be able to 1 Define economics, distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics, and explain the questions of microeconomics. 2 Describe the work of economists as social scientists. 3 Explain five core ideas that define the economic way of thinking. We will write a custom essay sample on Introduction Part Chapter or any similar topic only for you Order Now 4 Explain why economics is worth studying. You are studying microeconomics at a time of enormous change. After a decade of technological change that brought e-commerce, MP3 music, DVD movies, cell phones, Palm Pilots, and host of other gadgets and toys that have transformed the way we work and play, our lives were changed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The shock waves from that day will pulsate through our economy for many years. They have shrunk our airlines, expanded our security and defense industries, and created huge uncertainty about the future. Outside the United States, more than 1 billion of the world’s 6. 3 billion people survive on $1 a day or less. Disturbed by the combination of increasing wealth and persistent poverty, some people are pointing to globalization as the source of growing economic inequality. Your course in microeconomics will help you to understand the powerful forces that are shaping our economic world and help you to navigate it in your everyday life and work. 1 2 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION 1 . 1 DEFINITIONS AND QUESTIONS Scarcity The condition that arises because the available resources are insufficient to satisfy wants. Incentive A reward or a penalty—a â€Å"carrot† or a â€Å"stick†Ã¢â‚¬â€that encourages or discourages an action. All economic questions and problems arise because human wants exceed the resources available to satisfy them. We want good health and long lives. We ant spacious and comfortable homes. We want a huge range of sports and recreational equipment from running shoes to jet skis. We want the time to enjoy our favorite sports, video games, novels, music, and movies; to travel to exotic places; and to just hang out with friends. In the world of politics, it is easy to get carried away with the idea that we can have it all. P oliticians tell us they will provide all the extra public services that we want, and at the same time, they will cut our taxes so that we can spend more on the things that we enjoy. Despite the promises of politicians, we cannot have it all. The ability of each of us to satisfy our wants is limited by time and by the incomes we earn and the prices we pay for the things we buy. These limits mean that everyone has unsatisfied wants. Our ability as a society to satisfy our wants is limited by the productive resources that exist. These resources include the gifts of nature, our own labor and ingenuity, and tools and equipment that we have produced. Our inability to satisfy all our wants is called scarcity. The poor and the rich alike face scarcity. A child wants a $1. 00 can of soda and two 50? packs of gum but has only $1. 0 in his pocket. He faces scarcity. A millionaire wants to spend the weekend playing golf and spend the same weekend at the office attending a business strategy meeting. She faces scarcity. A society wants to provide vastly improved health care, install an Internet connection in every classroom, explore space, clean polluted lakes and rivers, and so on. Society also faces scarcity. Faced with scarcity, we must make choices. We must choose among the available alternatives. The child must choose the soda or the gum. The millionaire must choose the golf game or the meeting. As a society, we must choose among health care, computers, space exploration, the environment, and so on. The choices we make depend on the incentives we face. An incentive is a reward or a penalty—a â€Å"carrot† or a â€Å"stick†Ã¢â‚¬â€that encourages or discourages an action. If the price of gum rises and the price of soda falls, the child has an incentive Even parrots face scarcity! Not only do I want a cracker—we all want a cracker!  ©The New Yorker Collection 1985 Frank Modell from cartoonbank. com. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started to choose less gum and more soda. If a profit of $10 million is at stake, the millionaire has an incentive to attend the meeting and skip the golf game. As computer prices tumble, school boards have a stronger incentive to connect more classrooms to the Internet. Economics is the social science that studies the choices that we make as we cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile our choices. The subject divides into two main parts: †¢ Microeconomics †¢ Macroeconomics 3 Economics The social science that studies the choices that we make as we cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile our choices. Microeconomics Microeconomics is the study of the choices that individuals and businesses make and the way these choices respond to incentives, interact, and are influenced by governments. Some examples of microeconomic questions are: Why are more people buying SUVs and fewer people buying minivans? How will a cut in the price of the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox affect the quantities of these items that people buy? Microeconomics The study of the choices that individuals and businesses make and the way these choices respond to incentives, interact, and are influenced by governments. Macroeconomics Macroeconomics is the study of the aggregate (or total) effects on the national economy and the global economy of the choices that individuals, businesses, and governments make. You read "Introduction Part Chapter" in category "Essay examples" Some examples of macroeconomic questions are: Why did production and jobs expand so rapidly in the United States during the 1990s? Why has Japan been in a long period of economic stagnation? Why did the Federal Reserve cut interest rates during 2001 and keep them low through 2002? Macroeconomics The study of the aggregate (or total) effects on the national economy and the global economy of the choices that individuals, businesses, and overnments make. Microeconomic Questions The economic choices that individuals, businesses, and governments make and the interactions of those choices answer the three major questions: †¢ What? †¢ How? †¢ For whom? The distinction between microeconomics and macroeconomics is similar to the distincti on between two views of a display of national flags in an Olympic stadium. The micro view (left) is of a single participant and the actions he or she is taking. The macro view (right) is the patterns formed by the joint actions of all the people participating in the entire display. 4 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION What? Goods and services The objects that people value and produce to satisfy human wants. Goods are physical objects and services are tasks performed for people. What goods and services get produced and in what quantities? Goods and services are the objects that people value and produce to satisfy human wants. Goods are physical objects such as golf balls. Services are tasks performed for people such as haircuts. The nation’s farms, factories, construction sites, shops, and offices produce a dazzling array of goods and services that range from necessities such as food, houses, and apartments to leisure items such ocean cruises, SUVs, and DVD players. What determines the quantities of corn we grow, homes we build, and DVD players we produce? How do these quantities change over time? And how are they affected by the ongoing changes in technology that make an ever-wider array of goods and services available to us? How? How are goods and services produced? In a vineyard in France, basket-carrying workers pick the annual grape crop by hand. In a vineyard in California, a huge machine and a few workers do the same job that a hundred French grape pickers do. Look around you and you will see many examples of this phenomenon? he same job being done in different ways. In some supermarkets, checkout clerks key in prices. In others, they use a laser scanner. One farmer keeps track of his livestock feeding schedules and inventories by using paper-and-pencil records, while another uses a personal computer. GM hires workers to weld auto bodies in some of its plants and uses robots to do the job in others. Why do we use machines in some cases an d people in others? Do mechanization and technological change destroy more jobs than they create? Do they make us better off or worse off? For Whom? In a California vineyard a machine and a few workers do the same job as a hundred French grape pickers. A doctor gets more of the goods and services produced than a nurse or a medical assistant gets. For whom are goods and services produced? The answer to this question depends on the incomes that people earn and the prices they pay for the goods and services they buy. At given prices, a person who has a high income is able to buy more goods and services than a person who has a low income. Doctors earn much higher incomes than do nurses and medical assistants. So doctors get more of the goods and services produced than nurses and medical assistants get. You probably know about many other persistent differences in incomes. Men, on the average, earn more than women. Whites, on the average, earn more than minorities. College graduates, on the average, earn more than high school graduates. Americans, on the average, earn more than Europeans, who in turn earn more, on the average, than Asians and Africans earn. But there are some significant exceptions. The people of Japan and Hong Kong now earn an average income similar to that of Americans. And there is a lot of income inequality throughout the world. What determines the incomes we earn? Why do doctors earn larger incomes than nurses? Why do white male college graduates earn more than minority female high school graduates? Why do Americans earn more, on the average, than Africans? Microeconomics explains how the economic choices that individuals, businesses, and governments make and the interactions of those choices end up determining what, how, and for whom goods and services get produced. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started CHECKPOINT 1 5 1. 1 Define economics, distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics, and explain the questions of microeconomics. Study Guide pp. 2–5 Practice Online 1. 1 Practice Problems 1. 1 1. Economics studies choices that arise from one fact. What is that fact? 2. Provide three examples of wants in the United States today that are especially pressing but not satisfied. 3. Provide an example of an incentive that is like a carrot and one that is like a stick. 4. Sort the following issues into microeconomic and macroeconomic issues: a. People must install catalytic converters in their cars. . U. S. unemployment should be much lower. c. Your local county opens a neighborhood gym for teenagers. 5. Match the following headlines with the What, How, and For whom questions: a. With more research, we will cure cancer. b. A good education is the right of every child. c. What will the government do with its budget surplus? Exercises 1. 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Every day, we make many choices. Why canâ €™t we avoid having to make choices? Look at today’s newspaper and find an example of a want that is not satisfied. What is the incentive that Venus Williams and Tiger Woods face each day? Check your local media for headlines that concern three microeconomic issues and three macroeconomic issues. Check your local media for headlines that ask two of each of the What, How, and For whom questions. Solutions to Practice Problems 1. 1 1. The fact is scarcity—human wants exceed the resources available. 2. Security from international terrorism, cleaner air in our cities, and better public schools. (You can perhaps think of some more. ) 3. If your economics instructor offers you an opportunity to earn 5 bonus points by completing an assignment on time, your incentive is a carrot. If your economics instructor warns you that there is a 5-point penalty for a late assignment, your incentive is a stick. 4a. Microeconomic issue because it deals with the choices made by individual people. 4b. Macroeconomic issue because it refers to the national economy. 4c. Microeconomic issue because the government’s decision interacts with teenagers’ decisions. 5a. More research is a How question, and a cure for cancer is a What question. 5b. Good education is a What question, and every child is a For whom question. 5c. Who will get the budget surplus is a For whom question. 6 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION 1 . ECONOMICS: A SOCIAL SCIENCE We’ve defined economics as the social science that studies the choices that individuals and societies make as they cope with scarcity. We’re now going to look at the way economists go about their work as social scientists and at some of the problems they encounter. The major goal of economists is to discover how the econ omic world works. In pursuit of this goal, economists (like all scientists) distinguish between two types of statements: †¢ What is †¢ What ought to be Statements about what is are called positive statements. They say what is currently understood about the way the world operates. A positive statement might be right or wrong. And we can test a positive statement by checking it against the data. When a chemist does an experiment in her laboratory, she is attempting to check a positive statement against the facts. Statements about what ought to be are called normative statements. These statements depend on values and cannot be tested. When Congress debates a motion, it is ultimately trying to decide what ought to be. It is making a normative statement. To see the distinction between positive and normative statements, consider the controversy about global warming. Some scientists believe that 200 years of industrial activity and the large quantities of coal and oil that we burn are increasing the carbon dioxide content of the earth’s atmosphere with devastating consequences for life on this planet. Other scientists disagree. The statement â€Å"Our planet is warming because of an increased carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere† is a positive statement. It can (in principle and with sufficient data) be tested. The statement â€Å"We should cut back on our use of carbon-based fuels such as coal and oil† is a normative statement. You may agree with or disagree with this statement, but you can’t test it. It is based on values. Health-care reform provides another economic example of the distinction. â€Å"Universal health care will cut the amount of work time lost to illness† is a positive statement. â€Å"Every American should have equal access to health care† is a normative statement. The task of economic science is to discover and catalog positive statements that are consistent with what we observe in the world and that enable us to understand how the economic world works. This task is a large one that can be broken into three steps: Observing and measuring †¢ Model building †¢ Testing Observing and Measuring The first step toward understanding how the economic world works is to observe and measure it. Economists keep track of huge amounts of economic data. Some examples are the amounts and locations of natural and human resources; wages and work hours; the prices and quantitie s of the different goods and services produced; taxes and government spending; and the volume of international trade. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started 7 Model Building The second step is to build models. An economic model is a description of some aspect of the economic world that includes only those features of the world that are needed for the purpose at hand. A model is simpler than the reality it describes. What a model includes and what it leaves out result from assumptions about what are essential and what are inessential details. You can see how ignoring details is useful—even essential—to our understanding by thinking about a model that you see every day: the TV weather map. The weather map is a model that helps to predict the temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation over a future period. The weather map shows lines called isobars? lines of equal barometric pressure. It doesn’t show the interstate highways. The reason is that we think the location of the highways has no influence on the weather but the air pressure patterns do have an influence. An economic model is similar to a weather map. It tells us how a number of variables are determined by a number of other variables. For example, an economic model of Boston’s â€Å"Big Dig†Ã¢â‚¬â€a $15 billion project to place the city’s major highways underground—might tell us the impact of the project on house prices, apartment rents, jobs, and commuting times. Economists use a variety of methods to describe their economic models. Most commonly, the method is mathematical. And if you plan on a career in economics, you will study a good deal of math. But the basic ideas of all economic models can be described using words and pictures or diagrams. That is how economic models are described in this text. A rare exception is a model called the Phillips Economic Hydraulic Computer, shown here. Bill Phillips, a New Zealand-born engineer-turned-economist, created this model using plastic tubes and Plexiglas tanks at the London School of Economics in 1949. The model still works today in a London museum. Testing The third step is testing models. A model’s predictions might correspond to or conflict with the data. If there is a conflict, the model needs to be modified or rejected. A model that has repeatedly passed the test of corresponding well with real-world data is the basis of an economic theory. An economic theory is a generalization that summarizes what we understand about the economic choices that people make and the economic performance of industries and nations. The process of building and testing models creates theories. For example, meteorologists have a theory that if the isobars form a particular pattern at a particular time of the year (a model), then it will snow (reality). They have developed this theory by repeated observation and by carefully recording the weather that follows specific patterns of isobars. Economics is a young science. Although philosophers have written about economic issues since the time of the ancient Greeks, it is generally agreed that as a modern social science, economics was born in 1776 with the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Over the years since then, economists have discovered many useful theories. But in many areas, economists are still looking for answers. The gradual accumulation of economic knowledge gives most economists some faith that their methods will eventually provide usable answers. But progress in economics comes slowly. A major reason is that it is difficult in economics to unscramble cause and effect. Economic model A description of some aspect of the economic world that includes only those features of the world that are needed for the purpose at hand. The Phillips Economic Hydraulic Computer: Colored water in plastic tubes and Plexiglas tanks illustrates the effects of overnment actions on incomes and expenditures. This model economy is in a London museum. Economic theory A generalization that summarizes what we understand about the economic choices that people make and the economic performance of industries and nations based on models that have repeatedly passed the test of corresponding well with real-world data. Eye on the Past Adam Smith and the Birth of Eco nomics as a Modern Social Science Many people had written about economics before Adam Smith, but he made economics a social science. Born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, a small ishing town near Edinburgh, Scotland, Smith was the only child of the town’s customs officer. Lured from his professorship (he was a full professor at 28) by a wealthy Scottish duke who gave him a pension of ? 300 a year— ten times the average income at that time—he devoted ten years to writing his masterpiece, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. Why, Adam Smith asked in that book, are some nations wealthy while others are poor? He was pondering these questions at the height of the Industrial Revolution. During these ears, new technologies were applied to the manufacture of textiles, iron, transportation, and agriculture. Adam Smith answered his questions by emphasizing the role of the division of labor and free markets. To illustrate his argument, he used the example of a pin factory. He guessed that one person, using the hand tools available in the 1770s, might make 20 pins a day. Yet, he observed, by using those same hand tools but breaking the process into a number of individually small operations in which people specialize—by the division of labor—ten people could make a staggering 48,000 pins a day. One draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it. Three specialists make the head, and a fourth attaches it. Finally, the pin is polished and packaged. But a large market is needed to support the division of labor: One factory employing ten workers would need to sell more than 15 million pins a year to stay in business! Unscrambling Cause and Effect Are computers getting cheaper because people are buying them in greater quantities? Or are people buying computers in greater quantities because they are getting cheaper? Or is some third factor causing both the price of a computer to fall and the quantity of computers to increase? Economists want to answer questions like these, but doing so is often difficult. The central idea that economists (and all scientists) use to unscramble cause and effect is ceteris paribus. Ceteris Paribus Ceteris paribus Other things remaining the same (often abbreviated as cet. par. ). 8 Ceteris paribus is a Latin term (often abbreviated as cet. par. ) that means â€Å"other things being equal† or â€Å"if all other relevant things remain the same. Ensuring that other things are equal is crucial in many activities, and all successful attempts to make scientific progress use this device. By changing one factor at a time and holding all the other relevant factors constant, we isolate the factor of interest and are able to investigate its effects in the clearest possible way. Economic models, like the models in all other sciences, enable the influence of one factor a t a time to be isolated in the imaginary world of the model. When we use a model, we are able to imagine what would happen if only one factor changed. But ceteris paribus can be a problem in economics when we try to test a model. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started 9 Laboratory scientists, such as chemists and physicists, perform controlled experiments by holding all the relevant factors constant except for the one under investigation. In economics, we observe the outcomes of the simultaneous operation of many factors. Consequently, it is hard to sort out the effects of each individual factor and to compare the effects with what a model predicts. To cope with this problem, economists take three complementary approaches: †¢ Natural experiments Statistical investigations †¢ Economic experiments Natural Experiments A natural experiment is a situation that arises in the ordinary course of economic life in which the one factor of interest is different and other things are equal (or similar). For example, Canada has higher unemployment benefits than the United States, but the people in the two nations are similar. So to study the effects of unemployment benefits on the unemployment rate, economists might compare the United States with Canada. Statistical Investigations Statistical investigations look for correlations. Correlation is the tendency for the values of two variables to move in a predictable and related way. For example, there is a correlation between the amount of cigarette smoking and the incidence of lung cancer. There is also a correlation between the size of a city’s police force and the city’s crime rate. Two economic examples are the correlation between household income and spending and the correlation between the price of a telephone call and the number of calls made. We must be careful to interpret a correlation correctly. Sometimes a correlation shows the strength of a causal influence of one variable on the other. For example, smoking causes lung cancer, and higher incomes cause higher spending. Sometimes the direction of causation is hard to determine. For example, does a larger police force detect more crimes or does a higher crime rate cause a larger police force to be hired? And sometimes a third factor causes both correlated variables. For example, advances in communication technology have caused both a fall in the price of phone calls and an increase in the quantity of calls. So the correlation between the price and quantity of phone calls has a deeper cause. Sometimes, the direction of cause and effect can be determined by looking at the timing of events. But this method must be handled with care because of a problem known as the post hoc fallacy. Post Hoc Fallacy Another Latin phrase—post hoc ergo propter hoc—means â€Å"after this, therefore because of this. † The post hoc fallacy is the error of reasoning that a first event causes a second event because the first occurred before the second. Suppose you are a visitor from a far-off world. You observe lots of people shopping in early December, and then you see them opening gifts and celebrating on Christmas Day. Does the shopping cause Christmas, you wonder? After a deeper study, you discover that Christmas causes the shopping. A later event causes an earlier event. Just looking at the timing of events often doesn’t help to unravel cause and effect in economics. For example, the stock market booms, and some months later Correlation The tendency for the values of two variables to move in a predictable and related way. Post hoc fallacy The error of reasoning that a first event causes a second event because the first occurred before the second. 10 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION the economy expands—jobs and incomes grow. Did the stock market boom cause the economy to expand? Possibly, but perhaps businesses started to plan the expansion of production because a new technology that lowered costs had become available. As knowledge of the plans spread, the stock market reacted to anticipate the economic expansion. To disentangle cause and effect, economists use economic models to interpret correlations. And when they can do so, economists perform experiments. Economic Experiments Economic experiments put real subjects in a decision-making situation and vary the influence of interest to discover how the subjects respond to one factor at a time. Most economic experiments are done using students as the subjects. But some use the actual people whose behavior economists want to understand and predict. An example of an economic experiment on actual subjects is one designed to discover the effects of changing the way welfare benefits are paid in New Jersey. Another experiment was conducted to discover how telecommunications companies would bid in different types of auctions for the airwave frequencies they use to transmit cellular telephone messages. Governments have made billions of dollars using the results of this experiment. CHECKPOINT Study Guide pp. 5–6 Practice Online 1. 2 2 1. 2 Describe the work of economists as social scientists. Practice Problems 1. 2 1. Classify each of the following statements as positive or normative: a. There is too much poverty in the United States. b. An increase in the gas tax will cut pollution. c. Cuts to social security in the United States have been too deep. 2. Provide two examples of the post hoc fallacy. Exercises 1. 2 1. Classify each of the following statements as positive or normative: a. More scholarships to students from poor families will reduce U. S. overty. b. Free trade will harm developing countries. c. Cuts to public education in the United States have been too high. 2. How might an economist test one of the positive statements in exercise 1? Solutions to Practice Problems 1. 2 1a. A normative statement. It cannot be tested. 1b. A positive statement. An experiment will test it. 1c. A normative statement. It cannot be tested. 2. Examples are: New Yea r celebrations cause January sales. A booming stock market causes a Republican president to be elected. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started 11 1. 3 THE ECONOMIC WAY OF THINKING You’ve seen that to understand what, how, and for whom goods and services are produced, economists build and test models of peoples’ choices and the interactions of those choices. Five core ideas summarize the economic way of thinking about people’s choices, and these ideas form the basis of all microeconomic models. The ideas are †¢ People make rational choices by comparing costs and benefits. †¢ Cost is what you must give up to get something. †¢ Benefit is what you gain when you get something and is measured by what you are willing to give up to get it. †¢ A rational choice is made on the margin. People respond to incentives. Rational Choice The most basic idea of economics is that in making choices, people act rationally. A rational choice is one that uses the available resources to most effectively satisfy the wants of the person making the choice. Only the wants and preferences of the person making a choice are relevant to determine its r ationality. For example, you might like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla ice cream, but your friend prefers vanilla. So it is rational for you to choose chocolate and for your friend to choose vanilla. A rational choice might turn out to have been not the best choice after the event. A farmer might decide to plant wheat rather than soybeans. Then, when the crop comes to market, the price of soybeans might be much higher than the price of wheat. The farmer’s choice was rational when it was made, but subsequent events made it less profitable than a different choice. The idea of rational choice provides an answer to the first question: What goods and services will get produced and in what quantities? The answer is: Those that people rationally choose to produce! But how do people choose rationally? Why have we chosen to build an interstate highway system and not an interstate high-speed railroad system? Why have most people chosen to use Microsoft’s Windows operating system rather than another? Why do more people today choose to drink bottled water and sports energy drinks than in the past? We make rational choices by comparing costs and benefits. But economists think about costs and benefits in a special and revealing way. Let’s look at the economic concepts of cost and benefit. Rational choice A choice that uses the available resources to most effectively satisfy he wants of the person making the choice. Cost:What You Must Give Up Whatever you choose to do, you could have done something else instead. You could have done lots of things other than what you actually did. But one of these other things is the best alternative given up. This alternative that you must give up to get something is the opportunity cost of the thing that you get. The thing that you could h ave chosen—the highest-valued alternative forgone—is the cost of the thing that you did choose. â€Å"There’s no such thing as a free lunch† is not a clever but empty saying. It expresses the central idea of economics: that every choice involves a cost. Opportunity cost The opportunity cost of something is the best thing you must give up to get it. 12 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION Sunk cost A previously incurred and irreversible cost. We use the term opportunity cost to emphasize that when we make a choice in the face of scarcity, we give up an opportunity to do something else. You can quit school right now, or you can remain in school. Suppose that if you quit school, the best job you can get is at McDonald’s, where you can earn $10,000 during the year. The opportunity cost of remaining in school includes the things that you could have bought with this $10,000. The opportunity cost also includes the value of the leisure time that you must forgo to study. Opportunity cost is only the alternative forgone. It does not include all the expenditures that you make. For example, when you contemplate whether to remain in school, your expenditure on tuition is part of the opportunity cost of remaining in school. But the cost of your school meal voucher is not part of the opportunity cost of remaining in school. You must buy food whether you remain in school or not. Also, past expenditures that cannot be reversed are not part of opportunity cost. Suppose you’ve paid your term’s tuition and it is nonrefundable. If you now contemplate quitting school, the paid tuition is irrelevant. It is called a sunk cost. A sunk cost is a previously incurred and irreversible cost. Whether you remain in school or quit school, having paid the tuition, the tuition is not part of the opportunity cost of remaining in school. Benefit: Gain Measured by What You Are Willing to Give Up Benefit The benefit of something is the gain or pleasure that it brings. The benefit of something is the gain or pleasure that it brings. Benefit is how a person feels about something. You might be extremely anxious to get the latest version of a video game. It will bring you a large benefit. And you might have almost no interest in the latest Yo Yo Ma cello concerto CD. It will bring you a small benefit. Economists measure the benefit of something by what a person is willing to give up to get it. You can buy CDs, sodas, or magazines. The sodas or magazines that you are willing to give up to get a CD measure the benefit you get from a CD. For these students, the opportunity cost of being in school is worth bearing. For the fast-food worker, the opportunity cost of remaining in school is too high. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started 13 On the Margin A choice on the margin is a choice that is made by comparing all the relevant alternatives systematically and incrementally. For example, you must choose how to divide the next hour between studying and e-mailing your friends. To make this choice, you must evaluate the costs and benefits of the alternative possible allocations of your next hour. You choose on the margin by considering whether you will be better off or worse off if you spend an extra few minutes studying or an extra few minutes e-mailing. The margin might involve a small change, as it does when you’re deciding how to divide an hour between studying and e-mailing friends. Or it might involve a large change, as it does, for example, when you’re deciding whether to remain in school for another year. Attending school for part of the year is no better (and might be worse) than not attending at all—it is not a relevant alternative. So you likely will want to commit the entire year to school or to something else. But you still choose on the margin. It is just that the marginal change is now a change for one year rather than a change for a few minutes. Margin A choice on the margin is a choice that is made by comparing all the relevant alternatives systematically and incrementally. Marginal Cost The opportunity cost of a one-unit increase in an activity is called marginal cost. Marginal cost is what you must give up to get one more unit of something. Think about your marginal cost of going to the movies for a third time in a week. Your marginal cost is what you must give up to see that one additional movie. It is not what you give up to see all three movies. The reason is that you’ve already given up something for two movies, so you don’t count this cost as resulting from the decision to see the third movie. The marginal cost of any activity usually increases as you do more of it. You know that going to the movies decreases your study time and lowers your grade. Suppose that seeing a second movie in a week lowers your grade by five percentage points. Seeing a third movie will lower your grade by more than five additional percentage points. Your marginal cost of moviegoing is increasing. Marginal cost The opportunity cost that arises from a one-unit increase in an activity. The marginal cost of something is what you must give up to get one more unit of it. Marginal Benefit The benefit of a one-unit increase in an activity is called marginal benefit. Marginal benefit is what you gain when you get one more unit of something. Think about your marginal benefit from the movies. You’ve been to the movies twice this week, and you’re contemplating going for a third time. Your marginal benefit is the benefit you will get from the one additional movie. It is not the benefit you get from all three movies. The reason is that you already have had the benefit from two movies, so you don’t count this benefit as resulting from the third movie. Marginal benefit is measured by the most you are willing to give up to get one more unit of something. And a fundamental feature of marginal benefit is that it usually diminishes. The benefit from seeing the first movie in the week is greater than the benefit from seeing the second movie in the week. Because the marginal benefit decreases as you see more movies in the week, you are willing to give up less to see one more movie. You know that going to the movies decreases your study time and lowers your grade. Suppose that you were willing to give up ten percentage points to see your second movie. You won’t be willing to take such a big hit on your grades to see the third movie in a week. Your marginal benefit of moviegoing is decreasing. Marginal benefit The benefit that arises from a oneunit increase in an activity. The marginal benefit of something is measured by what you are willing to give up to get one more unit of it. 14 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION Making a Rational Choice So will you go to the movies for that third time in a week? If the marginal cost is less than the marginal benefit, your rational choice will be to see the third movie. If the marginal cost exceeds the marginal benefit, your rational choice will be to spend the evening studying. We make a rational choice and use our scarce resources in the way that makes us as well off as possible when we take those actions for which marginal cost is less than or equal to marginal benefit. Responding to Incentives Changes in marginal benefit and marginal cost change the incentive to study or to enjoy a movie. In making our choices, we respond to incentives—we respond to â€Å"carrots† and â€Å"sticks. † The carrots that we face are marginal benefits. The sticks are marginal costs. A change in marginal benefit or a change in marginal cost brings a change in the incentives that we face and leads us to change our actions. Most students believe that the payoff from studying just before a test is greater than the payoff from studying a month before a test. In other words, as a test date approaches, the marginal benefit of studying increases and the incentive to study becomes stronger. For this reason, we bserve an increase in study time and a decrease in leisure pursuits during the last few days before a test. And the more important the test, the greater is this effect. A change in marginal cost also changes incentives. For example, suppose that last week, you found your course work easy. You scored 100 percent on all your practice quizzes. The marginal cost of taking off an evening to enjoy a movie was low. Your grade on this week’s test will not suffer. So you have an incentive to enjoy a movie feast. But this week, suddenly, the going has gotten tough. You are just not getting it. Your practice test scores are low, and you know that if you take off even one evening, your grade on next week’s test will suffer. The marginal cost of seeing a movie is higher this week than last week. So you now have an incentive to give the movies a miss and study. The central idea of economics is that we can measure changes in incentives, and these measurements enable us to predict the choices that people make as their circumstances change. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started CHECKPOINT 3 15 1. 3 Explain five core ideas that define the economic way of thinking. Practice Problem 1. 3 Kate usually plays tennis for two hours a week, and her grade on each math test is usually 70 percent. Last week, after playing two hours of tennis, Kate thought long and hard about playing for another hour. She decided to play another hour of tennis and cut her study time by one additional hour. But the grade on last week’s math test was 60 percent. a. What was Kate’s opportunity cost of the third hour of tennis? b. Given that Kate made the decision to play the third hour of tennis, what can you conclude about the comparison of her marginal benefit and marginal cost of the second hour of tennis? . Was Kate’s decision to play the third hour of tennis rational? d. Did Kate make her decision on the margin? Exercises 1. 3 1. Bill Gates gives away a lot of money: $200 million to put computers in libraries that can’t afford them and $135 million to universities, cancer research, a children’s hospital, and the Seattle Symphony. Doesn’t Bill Gates e xperience scarcity? Are his donations rational? In making these donations, might Bill Gates have responded to any incentive? 2. Steve Fossett spent a lot of money trying to be the first person to circumnavigate the world in a hot-air balloon. Anheuser-Busch offered a prize of $1 million for the first balloonist to do so in 15 days nonstop. What was the opportunity cost of Steve Fossett’s adventure? But Steve Fossett was not the first person to circumnavigate the world in a balloon, so did he get any benefits? Why did Anheuser-Busch offer the prize? 3. Tony is an engineering student, and he is considering taking an extra course in history. List the things that might be part of his costs and benefits of the history course. Think of an incentive that might encourage him to take the course. Solution to Practice Problem 1. 3 a. Kate’s opportunity cost of the third hour of tennis was the ten percentage point drop in her grade. If Kate had not played tennis for the third hour, she would have studied and her grade would not have dropped. The best alternative forgone is her opportunity cost of the third hour of tennis. b. The marginal benefit from the second hour of tennis must have exceeded the marginal cost of the second hour because Kate chose to play tennis for the third hour. If the marginal benefit did not exceed the marginal cost, she would have chosen to study and not play tennis for the third hour. c. If for Kate marginal benefit exceeded marginal cost, her decision was rational. d. Kate made her decision on the margin because she considered the benefit and cost of one additional hour. Study Guide pp. 7–9 Practice Online 1. 3 16 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION 1. 4 WHY ECONOMICS IS WORTH STUDYING In 1961, Mick Jagger, then the 19-year-old lead singer with a group that would become the Rolling Stones, enrolled in an economics degree program at the London School of Economics. During the day, he was learning about opportunity cost, and each night, his rock group was earning today’s equivalent of $120. Mick soon realized that his opportunity cost of remaining in school was too high, and so he dropped out. (A faculty advisor is reputed to have told Mick that he would not make much money in a rock band. But within a few months, the Rolling Stones, along with the Beatles, shot to international stardom and multimilliondollar recording contracts! ) Mick Jagger used one of the big ideas of economics to make his own rational decision. And you can do the same. Let’s look at the benefits and costs of studying economics and check that the benefits outweigh the costs. Two main benefits from studying economics are Understanding †¢ Expanded career opportunities Understanding George Bernard Shaw, the great Irish dramatist and thinker, wrote, â€Å"Economy is the art of making the most of life. † Life is certainly full of economic problems, some global or national in scope and some personal. Every day, on television, on the Internet, and in newspapers and magazines, we hear and read about global or national economic issues: Should Nike pay higher wages to its workers in Asia? Is there too much economic inequality in the world today? How can we improve health care, welfare, and education? Are taxes too high or too low? Will the Federal Reserve increase interest rates next week? And every day in your own life, you’re confronted with personal economic choices: Will you buy pizza or pasta? Will you skip class today? Will you put your summer earnings in the bank or the stock market? Studying economics equips you with tools and insights that help you to understand the world’s problems, to participate in the political debate that surrounds them, and to understand and solve your personal economic problems. John Maynard Keynes, a famous British economist of the twentieth century, wrote, â€Å"The ideas of economists . . , both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men [and women, he would have written today], who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. † Keynes was correct. You can’t ignore eco nomic ideas. They are all around you. You use them every day in your personal life and in your work. You use them when you vote and when you argue with your friends. But you don’t need to be the slave of some defunct economist. By studying economics, you will learn how to develop your own ideas and to test them against the ideas of others. As you progress with your study of economics, you will start to listen to the news and read your newspaper with a deeper understanding of what’s going on. You will also find yourself increasingly using the economics that you are learning when you make your own economic choices. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started 17 Expanded Career Opportunities Robert Reich, a former U. S. Secretary of Labor, predicts that the three big jobs of the twenty-first century will be what he calls problem identifying, problem solving, and strategic brokering. The people who are good at these tasks command soaring incomes. And there is no better way to train yourself in these skills than to study economics. You can think of economics as a workout regimen for your brain. Almost everything that you study in economics is practice at thinking abstractly and rigorously about concrete things. You will constantly be asking, â€Å"What if? † Although students of economics learn many useful economic concepts, it is the training and practice in abstract thinking that really pays off. Most students of economics don’t go on to major in the subject. And even those who do major in economics don’t usually go on to become economists. Rather, they work in fields such as banking, business, management, finance, insurance, real estate, marketing, law, government, journalism, health care, and the arts. A course in economics is a very good choice for a pre-med, pre-law, or pre-MBA student. Economics graduates are not the highest-paid professionals. But they are close to the top, as you can see in Figure 1. 1. Engineers and computer scientists, for example, earn up to 20 percent more than economics graduates. Economics graduates earn more than most others, and significantly, they earn more than business graduates. FIGURE 1. 1 Practice Online Average Incomes Graduates in disciplines that teach problem identifying, problem solving, and strategic brokering (engineering, computer science, and economics) are at the top of the earnings distribution. Engineering Agriculture and forestry Computer science Chemistry Economics Mathematics and statistics Accounting Business administration Biology Physical and earth sciences Liberal arts Psychology Social sciences Health sciences English and journalism Education 0 20 40 60 0 100 120 Average income (percent of economist’s income) SOURCES: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-70, No. 32, â€Å"Educational Background and Economic Status: Spring 1990,† and Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994, Table 246, and authors’ calculations. 18 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION The Costs o f Studying Economics Regardless of what you study, you must buy textbooks and supplies and pay tuition. So these expenses are not part of the opportunity cost of studying economics. One cost of studying economics is forgone knowledge of some other subject. If you work hard at studying economics, you must forgo learning some other subject. You can’t study everything. Another cost, and the main cost of studying economics, is forgone leisure time. Economics is a demanding subject, and it takes time to master. Most students say that they find it difficult. They often complain that they understand the subject when they read the textbook or listen to their instructor but then, when they take an exam, they just can’t figure out the correct answers. The trick is practice, or learning-by-doing. Economics is not a subject that you learn by memorizing things. You must memorize definitions and technical terms. But beyond that, memory is not your main mental tool. Working problems and learning how to analyze and solve problems are the key. And this activity is time consuming. Benefits Versus Costs So which is larger: the benefit or the cost? Economics says that only you can decide. You are the judge of value or benefit to yourself. So you must weigh the benefits and the costs that we’ve identified (and consider any others that are important to you). If you’re clear that the benefits outweigh the costs, you’re well on your way to having a good time in your economics course. If the costs outweigh the benefits, don’t waste your time. Life is too short. If you’re on the fence, try to get more information. But if you remain on the fence, complete this one course in economics and then decide. CHECKPOINT Study Guide pp. 9–10 Practice Online 1. 4 4 1. 4 Explain why economics is worth studying. Practice Problem 1. 4 A student is choosing between an economics course and a popular music course. List two opportunity costs and two benefits from taking a course in economics. Exercise 1. 4 Why did Mick Jagger quit his economics course? What are some of the benefits that Mick Jagger might have given up? Solution to Practice Problem 1. 4 Opportunity costs include the leisure forgone and forgone appreciation of popular music. Benefits include expanded career opportunities, better understanding of the world, and better problem-solving skills. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started CHAPTER CHECKPOINT Key Points 1 Define economics, distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics, and explain the questions of microeconomics. †¢ Economics is the social science that studies the choices that we make as we cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile our choices. Microeconomics is the study of the choices that individuals and businesses make and the way these choices respond to incentives, interact, and are influenced by governments. †¢ Macroeconomics is the study of the aggregate effects on the national economy and the global economy of the choices that individuals, businesses, and governments make. †¢ Choices that individuals, businesses, and government s make and the interactions of those choices end up determining what goods and services get produced, how they get produced, and for whom they get produced. 2 Describe the work of economists as social scientists. Positive statements are about what is, and they can be tested. Normative statements are about what ought to be, and they cannot be tested. †¢ To explain the economic world, economists build and test economic models. †¢ Economists use the ceteris paribus assumption to try to disentangle cause and effect, and they use natural experiments, statistical investigations, and economic experiments. 3 Explain five core ideas that define the economic way of thinking. †¢ People make rational choices by comparing costs and benefits. †¢ Cost is what you must give up to get something. Benefit is what you gain when you get something and is measured by what you are willing to give up to get it. †¢ A rational choice is made on the margin. †¢ People respond to in centives. 4 Explain why economics is worth studying. †¢ The benefits of studying economics are understanding of the economic world and expanded career opportunities. †¢ The costs of studying economics are forgone knowledge of some other subject and leisure time. Key Terms Practice Online Benefit, 12 Ceteris paribus, 8 Correlation, 9 Economic model, 7 Economic theory, 7 Economics, 3 Goods and services, 4 Incentive, 2 Macroeconomics, 3 Margin, 13 Marginal benefit, 13 Marginal cost, 13 Microeconomics, 3 Opportunity cost, 11 Post hoc fallacy, 9 Rational choice, 11 Scarcity, 2 Sunk cost, 12 19 20 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION Exercises 1. Provide three examples of scarcity that illustrate why even the wealthiest people who live in the most lavish luxury still face scarcity. 2. Provide two examples of incentives, one a carrot and the other a stick, that have influenced major government decisions during the past few years. 3. Think about the following news items and label each one as involving a microeconomic or macroeconomic issue: a. An increase in the tax on cigarettes will decrease teenage smoking. b. It would be better if the United States spent more on cleaning up the environment and less on space exploration. c. A government scheme called â€Å"work for welfare† will reduce the number of people who are unemployed. d. An increase in the number of police on inner-city streets will reduce the crime rate. 4. Think about the following news items and label each one as involving a What, How, or For whom question: a. Today most stores use computers to keep their inventory records, whereas 20 years ago most stores used paper records. b. Health care professionals and drug companies say that Medicaid drug rebates should be available to everyone in need. c. A doubling of the gas tax might lead to a better public transit system. 5. Think about the following news items and label each one as a positive or a normative statement. In the United States, a. The poor pay too much for housing. b. The number of farms has decreased over the last 50 years. c. The population in rural areas has remained constant over the past decade. 6. Explain how economists try to unscramble cause and effect. Explain why economists use the ceteris paribus assumption. 7. What is correlation? What approaches do economists use to try to sort out the cause and effect relationship that correlation might indicate? Describe each of these approaches. 8. What is the post hoc fallacy? Provide two examples of the post hoc fallacy. 9. Pam, Pru, and Pat are deciding how they will celebrate the New Year. Pam prefers to go on a cruise, is happy to go to Hawaii, but does not want to go skiing. Pru prefers to go skiing, is happy to go to Hawaii, but does not want to go on a cruise. Pat prefers to go to Hawaii or to take a cruise but does not want to go skiing. Their decision is to go to Hawaii. Is this decision rational? What is the opportunity cost of the trip to Hawaii for each of them? What is the benefit each person gets? 10. Your school has decided to increase the intake of new students next year. What economic concepts would your school consider in reaching its decision? Would the school make its decision at the margin? 11. In California, most vineyards use machines and a few workers to pick grapes, while some vineyards use no machines and many workers. Which vineyards have made a rational choice? Explain. Chapter 1 †¢ Getting Started Critical Thinking 12. The largest lottery jackpot prizes in U. S. history were $363 million and $331 million, both won in the Big Game Jackpot. a. Do the people who buy lottery tickets face scarcity? b. Do the winners of big prizes face scarcity after receiving their winners’ checks? c. Do you think lotteries have both microeconomic effects and macroeconomic effects or only microeconomic effects? Explain. d. How do you think lotteries change what and for whom goods and services are produced? e. Think about the statement â€Å"Lotteries create more problems than they solve and should be banned. † Which part of this statement is positive and how might it be tested? Which part of this statement is normative? f. Do people face a marginal cost and a marginal benefit when they decide to buy a lottery ticket? g. Does a person who buys a lottery ticket make a rational choice? h. Do the people who buy lottery tickets respond to incentives? i. How do you think the size of the jackpot affects the number of lottery tickets sold? What role do incentives play in this response? 13. â€Å"Spider-Man† was the most successful movie of 2002, with box office receipts of more than $400 million. Creating a successful movie brings pleasure to millions, generates work for thousands, and makes a few people rich. . What contribution does a movie like â€Å"Spider-Man† make to coping with scarcity? b. Does the decision to make a blockbuster movie mean that some other, more desirable activities get fewer resources than they deserve? c. Was your answer to part b a positive or a normative answer? Explain. d. Who decides whether a movie is going to be a block buster? e. How do you think the creation of a blockbuster movie influences what, how, and for whom goods and services are produced? f. What do you think are some of the marginal costs and marginal benefits that the producer of a movie faces? g. Suppose that Tobey Maguire had been offered a bigger and better part in another movie and that to hire him for â€Å"Spider-Man,† the producer had to double Tobey’s pay. What incentives were changed? How might the changed incentives have changed the choices that people made? 14. Think about each of the following situations and explain how they affect incentives and might change the choices that people make. a. Drought hits the Midwest. b. The World Series begins tonight, and there is a thunderstorm warning in effect for the stadium. c. The price of a personal computer falls to $50. d. Political instability in the Middle East cuts world oil production and sends the price of gasoline to $2 a gallon. e. Your school builds a new parking garage that increases the number of parking places available but doubles the price of parking on campus. f. A math professor awards grades based on the percentage of questions answered correctly and an economics professor awards grades based on rank in class—the top 10 percent get As, the bottom 10 percent get Cs, and the rest of the class get Bs regardless of the percentage of questions answered correctly. 21 22 Part 1 †¢ INTRODUCTION Practice Online Web Exercises If you haven’t already done so, take a few minutes to visit your Foundations Web site, sign in, and obtain your username and password. Browse the site and become familiar with its structure and content. You’ll soon appreciate that this Web site is a very useful and powerful learning tool. For each chapter, you will find quizzes, e-text, e-study guide, interactive tutorials and graphics, and animations of your textbook figures. You will also find the links you need to work the Web exercises. Use the links on your Foundations Web site to work the following exercises. 5. Visit some news Web sites and review today’s economic news. Summarize a news article that deals with an economic issue that interests you. Say whether the story deals with a microeconomic or a macroeconomic issue. 16. Visit the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Obtain data on changes in state tobacco taxes and changes in state tobacco consumption. a. Calculate the percent age change in tobacco taxes in each of the states for which you have data. b. Make a graph that plots the percentage change in the tobacco tax on the x-axis and the percentage change in state tobacco consumption on the y-axis. . Describe the relationship between these two variables. (Look at pages 23, 24, and 25 if you need help with making and interpreting your graph. ) d. How would you expect a rise in the tobacco tax to influence the incentive for a young person to smoke cigarettes? e. Do the data that you’ve obtained confirm what you expected or were you surprised by the data? Explain your answer. f. What can you infer about cause and effect in the data on tobacco taxes and tobacco consumption? g. What is the main obstacle to drawing a strong conclusion about the effect of tobacco taxes on tobacco consumption? 17. Visit the Statistical Abstract of the United States and obtain data on the levels of average annual pay and the percentage of persons with a bachelor’s degree in each of the states. a. Which state has the highest average pay and which has the lowest? b. Where in the ranking of average pay does your state stand? c. Which state has the highest percentage of people with a bachelor’s degree and which has the lowest? d. Where in the ranking of people with a bachelor’s degree does your state stand? e. What do you think these numbers tell us about what, how, or for whom goods and services are produced? f. What is the difficulty in using these numbers to determine whether education levels influence pay levels? APPENDIX: MAKING AND USING GRAPHS When you have completed your study of this appendix, you will be able to 1 Interpret a scatter diagram, a time-series graph, and a cross-section graph. 2 Interpret the graphs used in economic models. 3 Define and calculate slope. 4 Graph relationships among more than two variables. Basic Idea A graph represents a quantity as a distance and enables us to visualize the relationship between two variables. To make a graph, we set two lines called axes perpendicular to each other, like those in Figure A1. . The vertical line is called the y-axis, and the horizontal line is called the x-axis. The common zero point is called the origin. In Figure A1. 1, the x-axis measures temperature in degrees Fa How to cite Introduction Part Chapter, Essay examples

Food Habits free essay sample

Being packed with energy these food items help in repairing the damage caused by stress. * It has been generally observed that around the time of examinations children tend to suffer from stress related diarrhoea. So it is absolutely essential that they are served less oily, less spicy and easy to digest foodstuffs. Children preparing for their crucial examinations must increase their intake of liquids/fluids e: g milk, juices, and soups. However, processed/packed soups are an absolutely no-no. Despite the manufacturers tall claims, such soups are lacking in the essential nutrients and moreover contain synthetic preservatives, which youngsters could conveniently do without. Fresh mixed fruit/vegetable juices, especially carrot juice, garnished with suitable spices are indeed a boon for the examinees. * Tea/ coffee is a beverage that students love to consume because of their stimulating properties. However drinking coffee/tea on an empty stomach early in the morning is bound to prove disastrous. We will write a custom essay sample on Food Habits or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Similarly gulping down mugs of black tea /coffee in order to stay up the whole night, will do more harm than good. This habit gives rise to ailments like nausea, hypertension, insomnia among other. things. * Students normally experience hunger pangs in between meals. During such times, the parents must put their foot down and convince/persuade the children to have plenty o fresh fruits instead of junk food like burgers, pizzas, chips, samosas, bread pakoras, chhloay -bhaturay and lots more. Instead fries and snacks prepared at home would be a good substitute as the standards of hygiene and quality of materials can be ascertained. * A word of caution. Everyday ones comes across hordes of ads highlighting the near miraculous powers of several drugs/mixtures, claiming to enhance memory / retentive power, increase concentration and ameliorate overall performance in the exams. Without any offence meant to anybody, in case you plan to try these out, you will be doing so at your own risk. Unfortunately the efficacy stuffs such as these have not yet been scientifically authenticated

An Element Of Arts And Science Essay Example For Students

An Element Of Arts And Science Essay Astrology provides a very debatable kind of knowledge that is generally assessed by the intelligent as a useless kind of knowledge, which only makes sense for the ignorant. At the same time astrology is usually associated with gypsies and hucksters, who are known for their deceptive and fake knowledge, as they try to deceive people for their own financial interest. On the other hand, we find people with high education attempting to study astrology and very much respect the kind of knowledge it offers them. Whether such knowledge offered through teaching astrology in universities is worth doing or to be considered an inapplicable knowledge for high education is a critical decision to make, which requires obtaining a great insight about astrology it self as an academic field in order to be able to make a correct assessment. Astrology is actually a combined form of knowledge that both combine both the element of art and of science in its essence. It contains the mathematical element as well as the artistic element o symbolism (Astrology 891). Scientists usually disregard the art side of astrology and focus on the basic mathematical part of it, as they judge it as useless and insignificant. This actually destroys the wholeness and balance within the realm itself. This may be considered a reason for misunderstanding the real value of knowledge in astrology. It is also a fact that every field is vulnerable to be used by ignorant people who devoid it totally of its meaning and value, in order to sell it as cheap as possible in a market of ignorance that unfortunately have many customers who are wiling to buy, again this helps in misunderstanding Astrology (Astrology 891); and as there is the presence of the competent and the incompetent in every field, and people usually search for the best in every profession, so why exclude Astrology (Astrology 896). Astrology requires a sophisticated kind of thinking as it combines artistic and scientific knowledge, it can therefore never be considered as insignificant knowledge. It may not be appreciated by scientists due to the artistic element provided within it, and their total dependence on reason for discovering reality since the onset of the renaissance; thus reviving such forms of knowledge actually, shows the evolution of knowledge and thinking that reflects the significance of intuitive forms of knowledge besides the pure rational ones. The astrological knowledge in itself consists of a natural balance between intuitive and rational knowledge, and disturbing this balance will only lead to the production of inconsistent forms of knowledge that seem to appear on the surface to help in the generation of misunderstandings regarding astrology. The argument of scientists against Astrology reflects the on going disagreement between scientific knowledge and intuitive forms of knowledge. Scientists never admit the truth in any intuitive understanding, and they usually regarded as invalid. They never accept the fact the mystery is part of reality and that the rational mind can never be able to reach full understanding of the universe. Astrology is a balanced kind of knowledge as it respects both forms of thinking, which in fact a respect for nature and for the human being as part of that nature. I feel that the purpose of a reading is to understand ones life challenges And potential, to provide an opportunity for self reflection and life Evaluation, as well as to confirm ones intuitive sense of what ones Life is about (Astrology 895). Human beings as well as nature are made of matter and soul that can never be detached from each other as long as life is there. How can scientists reach the truth if they are actually altering the natural balance in life by looking for material proof and ignoring the intuitive reality of nature? The soul remains a mystery that can never be explained by scientific truth, and science can not resolve the question of life and death. There fore, accepting astrology as a significant form of knowledge by a scientist is truly a question of him admitting intuition as a part of reality. .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .postImageUrl , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:hover , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:visited , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:active { border:0!important; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:active , .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678 .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u198a9e4559a3b67746c27d4b66d4a678:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: History--Historical Analysis Of Jerzy Kosinskis The Painted Bird The P EssayFrom another side, if the issue had not been on intuition, regarding astrology, it is still a form of knowledge that surely provides the individual with some insight about life and introduces him to different kinds of thinking; it should be even credited for this reason alone, my studies in Astrology, as well as in other fields, are attempts to understand the grand design of the whole (Astrology 894). Scientists also accuse Astrological interpretive knowledge of not being exact stars incline but do not compel (A critical 882), and this fact works against scientific logic which is sharp and determi nant. But actually, life in it self is never exact or straight forward and clear as mathematical knowledge entails for instance. Astrology may actually provide the best for of understanding of life and nature; it allows people to understand reality the way it is without trying to alter its nature. The whole issue of prediction and future related knowledge can never be definite or fully explainable, to discuss future probabilities is much like giving a weather report (Astrology 896). On the other hand, it should be admitted that Astrological knowledge may help in creating dependent and weak individuals, if they used it wrongly. It might lead them to spin in a cycle, which they might not be able to break. People can stress too much on the intuitive knowledge in Astrology and thus once again altering its balance of logic and intuition and thus getting again a wrong insight about life and nature, with an accompanied change in personality and attitude to life Astrology, when practiced as completely as possible, takes away from ach of us our right and duty to make our own personal decisions (A Critical 882). In the case of a scientist who puts great emphasis on logic and excludes intuition, makes him a rough and rigid person who stands weak in front of the scientifically unexplained mysteries of the world; while in the case of the ignorant who does the opposite to give too much significance to intuition and disregards reason suffers another kind of weakness that creates a dependent and shattered personality. But again we must also admit that this would be the case with any field if wrongly interpreted. All in all, I believe that Astrology is a sophisticated form of knowledge that should be respected for the special thinking abilities it provides an individual who studies it. It also reflects on the importance of providing a balance between Art and Science, and thus between logic and intuition, which is found deep within the nature of man and the universe he lives in. I would very strongly recommend all institutions of high education to teach Astrology in order to correct the misunderstanding entitled to it, and thus expose the rich and deep knowledge it provides.