Saturday, August 28, 2010

Free Goods and Economics Goods

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Goods that are either very very abundant and therefore free. Sunsets and air, for example. The opposite is for Economics Goods: Anything that you have to pay for.

Utility

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Benefit/Satisfaction received from doing something. This concept is considered to be normative, and of course impossible to measure, since everyone's preference vary greatly.

A variation of utility is marginal utility.

Factors of Production Payment

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Remember the factors of production? Because if the issue of scarcity is always present in this world, people hold to the factors of production rather dearly. So much that we even give them a monetary value (wait, doesn't that mean that we hold dear to everything? How greedy). Of course, you can just sell your factors of productions and get money, But do you what they're called?

Land gives RENT. For example, if a landlord (yes, them evil landlords) allows someone else to live on their land (preferably in a house), they will have to pay back by giving the landlord money in the form of rent.

Labor gives WAGES. A worker will receive wages. Self explanatory.

Capital gives interests.

Entrepreneurship receives.....

???

Profit!

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The nerd definition: Basically, the Entrepreneur provides Land, Labor, Capital and the ability to bring those three together. In return, he will recieve wages, rents, interests and profits. Look here for the circular flow model that portrays this quite well.

Normative Economics

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

Green Arrow: Does everything have a sinister motive in your world? 
The Question: Yours too; you just don't know it.
Justice League, "Fearful Symmetry"


The easy definition:

Normative statements are well, normal. Except that they're biased. But that's normal too. A rule of thumb is that if they cannot be proved or disproved with facts or evidences, they're normative. Another rule of index would be that if they're said by the main hero or the villain, they're usually normative as well. Yes, I just totally tried to ruin movies for you.

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The nerd definition: Saying normative statements forced the user to stand on the pedestal of evaluation. One might use a certain standpoint - be it religious, philosophical or legal.

Positive Economics

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line.

The easy definition:

Okay, not really, but  that's definitely what Positive Economics is NOT supposed to be. Positive Economics is when statements can be proved or disproved using a scientific approach. This is what economists strive for. The opposite would be normative economics.

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 The nerd definition: A positive statement should be free from speculation and hinting of any kinds. This is based on facts that can be proved or disproved, i.e subjects that can be proved or disproved.

Economists try to confine their statements and questions to positive questions, things that can be verified. (This is why you see them arguing so much, since they believe they're stating positive statements to each other)

Sustainable Development

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Just to join the bandwagon of the people who have quoted this...."Sustainable Development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

In other words, it's basically development that will not compromise the future of the next generation. For example, if you open your country to hunting, you can make some pretty nifty cash for about ten years, before you completely crash because the ecosystem is completely ruined. We as humans are doing this right now, polluting the earth and what not. But that's another discussion.

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The nerd definition: There has been many argument about the exact meaning of the quote above. Some people argue that it is almost impossible to have development without compromising on the environment. Others suggests that this is simply an aspiration rather then a target.

(Extended reading can be found under this sentence. You have been warned.)

The World Bank has defined sustainable as "growth that lasts" which means that growth is within long term carrying capacity of the environment with respect to population and use of resources.

A highly enjoyable picture of the consequences of short term (unsustainable) development

Development

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: This a hard term to define (that just totally beats the purpose of an easy definition...). Anyways, development can be defined as a qualitative term: How much have the quality of your life have increased by.

Development is an increase in life quality....such as PIZZAS!

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 The nerd definition: Leading economist Micheal Tornado Todaro have defined development as a goal. Does the country have the basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, etc? Did it raised its living standards, employment, and education? Did it gave people economic and social choice?

Countries, based on the questions mentioned above are divided into MDC (more developed countries), and LDC (Less developed countries)

Another important concept that ties closely to this is Sustainable Development.

Growth

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Growth is self explanatory. It is the measurement of how big the output/input of an industry/country/mouth of a person have grown during a set amount of time. It is usually measured in monetary terms and adjusted with inflation to show real growth.

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The nerd definition: One important thing to think about when talking about growth is the concept of flow and stock. Flow is how long the line is on a graph, and stock is the data points.

What about GDP?

(Extended reading can be found under this sentence. You have been warned.)

GDP is basically the national income. This is a term that usually comes up if you're looking at macroeconomics. A GDP, or the national income, OR the national output, all means the same. It's the market value of how much products/services and country made during a single year. Why is the national income and the national output the same? Imagine buying something at Moe's. The income of Moe's (national income) would be equal to how much tacos they sold (=national output). Of course, this may not be the case sometimes, due to price inflation and all that, but forget about those for the time being.

Macroeconomics

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line.

The easy definition: Economics is divided into to sections: Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Macroeconomics deals with the sum of all Micro (small) parts. An example would be the economy of a country as a whole. While microecenomics look at only one specific product, macro refers to all products and all consumers. The keyword is aggregate, which means sum, collective, combined. Macroeconomics aggregate individual markets together.

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 The nerd definition: The four main issues of macroeconomics here is aggregate outputs (total output), price level, labor markets (such as unemployment), and foreign dealings (trade and exchange rates).

(Extended reading can be found under this sentence. You have been warned.)

Macroeconomics policies are policies that government uses to try to adjust the four factors listed above. They're generally divided into two types: Demand management policies and supply-side policy. Don't be scared by the Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness (unnecessarily long words) nature of those words. Demand management policies aim to influence the aggregate demand by adjusting interest taxes, taxes and government spendings. For example, an increase of tax on wine forces people to buy it less, and therefore less drunk. Supply-side policy boosts output (aka as aggregate supply) by increasing the abilities and willingness of firms to work (by, say, giving them a reward if they managed to donate 10% of their income to poor children.)

Of course, some people like it smoking hot....

Microeconomics

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Economics is divided into to sections: Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Microeconomics is when economists look at things from the level of one "entity". This is a tricky concept to grab for some people. For example, Looking at a company (one company), an individual (one person), even an industry (one industry) can be considered as microeconomics. A rule of thumb is that if you can call it "one thing", it can be considered microeconomics.

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 The nerd definition: Microeconomics looks at the individual firms' and consumers' and how they behave and how they make their decisions. In other words, microeconomics study how supply, demand and market affect each other and the individual that an economists is studying. Take a fishing firm for example. The economists (and soon-to-be) look at its output and pricing decisions and consumer's purchasing decisions, and see how increasing production costs forces forces the firm to raises the price on their products, which affects how much consumers who will still buy fishes from this firm or buy it somewhere cheaper.

A prime example of a Macroeconomicst's favorite subject.

Marginalism

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: Minimalism Marginalism analysis is the study where Economists try to see how "just one more" affects things. For example, they'll try to see how watching just one more youtube videos affect things, or how drinking just one more cup of beer will affect you.

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The nerd definition: A direct example of this into economics would be questions such as "Should Palpatine make one more Death Star?" and "Should a business increase its output one more time or not?". Usually, watching more youtube videos or drinking one more cup of beer will make you feel better. However, after a while, things get worse. You get a fraction for not doing homework. And hangovers generally sucks.

Rational thoughts is one of the bog three principles to economics, the other two being Scarcity and Rational Behaviors.

How many cats can you own before you suffocate the house?

None, because houses don't require oxygens. 

Friday, August 27, 2010

Rational Thoughts

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: When economists assume that people act for their best self-interest, or in layman's terms, choose a particular action if they think it's the best for them, or make them feel satisfied.

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 The nerd definition: Again, being the studies that includes humans in its equations, it's only an assumption. Humans aren't exactly the smartest creatures (we learn more through mistakes than though victoly), and irrational actions are well, plenty. Thankfully, people who do this frequently are usually erased from the gene pool.

Rational thoughts is one of the bog three principles to economics, the other two being Scarcity and Marginalism.

Factors of Production

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line.

The easy definition: Factors of production are things needed to create things and services. It is divided into 4 different parts: Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurship.

Land is basically anything that can be dug up, chopped down or plucked.

Labor is exactly what it says on the tin: The slavery of thousands of innocent souls, ALL FOR THE SAKE OF CONQUERING THE GALAX- I mean, labor is labor. Of course it has nothing to do with conquering the galaxy or anything of the sort.

Capital is..NOT MONEY!!! Suprise? Maybe not. If Land is any natural things used in a production, Capital is any man-made things used in a production. When using this, one should be careful. For example, a violin on my hand doesn't make it a capital; it's a consumer good (and a sign that people should run for, unless they have earplugs). A factory or a machine would count as a capital though.

Entrepreneur is a fancy term for "Bringing the first three together in order to create a product".

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The nerd definition: Of course, talking about Factors of Productions means that we have to come upon the issue of scarcity. Otherwise, there's not really much explanation.

What happens if you give Factors of Productions to other? You get payments!

Click me for a cheesy song!

Ceteris Paribus

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

The easy definition: When you assume that nothing but the factors you are currently working on are changing. For example, if you're studying how the internet affects a student's procrastination skills,  you assumed that no other factors are affecting said student's procrastination skills, such as parties or hanging out with friends.

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 The nerd definition: Ceteris Paribus is one of the important building blocks for economic models. This assumption allows economists to predict things with at least a bit of certainty.

(Extended reading can be found under this sentence. You have been warned.)

It is virtually impossible to ace Economics class without this concept, because Ceteris Paribus (isn't that a mouthful? Let's just call it THE assumption.) raises the level of trustworthiness by creating a much more rigid framework.

Not something to be viewed from school.

Scarcity

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line. 

"For abundance, even of good things, prevents them from being valued; and scarcity, even in the case of what is bad, confers a certain value." 
Don Quixote, Part II, The author's preface

The easy definition: There's never enough things on this planet. For example, the less gold there is in the world, the higher price it will be, and vice versa. This is an important concept of Economics. In Economicese, Scarcity refers to the lack/decline of the Factors of Production
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Humans are most attracted to things that are rare or unique.

The nerd definition: Scarcity differs greatly from people to people, from nations to nations. Some people might lack soap, others might lack water. Well, water can be used as a substitute for soap. Anyways, this isn't a problem that only poor countries experience. Rich countries, Japan for example, while having an abundant amount of technological advance as well as wacky people, severely lack in natural resources.

Rational thoughts is one of the bog three principles to economics, the other two being Rational Behaviors and Marginalism.

Also, Japanese people are said to be over fishing.

Social Sciences.

Note: I will separate each posts into an easy part and a hard part, indicated by a line.


The easy definition: Basically, the study of a bunch of people living together (human society), and the relationship between them and tax bills (organisations/ institutions/ governments). Social Sciences is broken down into many specific jobs, namely Economics, History. Geography and more. AKA as "soft science".

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The nerd definition: One of the three divisions of "Science", the other two being natural sciences and formal sciences.  Social Scientists concern themselves with the human aspects of the world. As a result, social scientists try to explain human aspects in terms of graphs and numbers. 

(Extended reading can be found under this sentence. You have been warned.)

This led to a common critique that it's much harder to perform repeatable, ethical experiments. See a "shocking" experiment performed by Yale University as well as this one for incidents.Scientists in general strive for a common rule that applies everywhere and the 'scientific method", but experiments have to take a back seat in social sciences because you can't really study, say, the US in miniature, because then it wouldn't be the US if it was in miniature. Of course, experiments is not the only way, but having models derived from a limited sets of data is often looked down, although this tendency creeps into a certain area of physics as well. 

The only way to arrive at a ballpark figure would be to assume Ceteris Paribus. Of course, social scientists, and specifically Economists try to approach things from a method as closest as possible to what is considered "scientific". Steps like organizing and analyzing data given, finding any patterns that emerge, and then coming to a hypothesis and then testing it are taken.  


Friday, December 18, 2009

Incheon~xD

Okay, so I'm at Incheon International airport right now (Korea). Why, you ask? Because I have to visit Vietnam before poofing all the way to England again. Ugh, I'm having one of those pain in the ears thing after flying -_-''
Ow ow ow ow.
I need to go drink some water. But this time it actually hurts...
Well, see ya! *swoosh*

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Beautiful days

What do you consider as a beautiful day?
Is it a day where everything goes good?
Or is it a day where everyone acts nice to you?
To me, a beautiful day is when you first step out of your house, you can feel a good wind and breeze.
I can feel it when it's a beautiful day, where everything goes (not perfectly) in the right way.
Like today.
Except that.
I realize I'm late for my math club.
=___=''
But on another note, Sistina is out.
So it's one more job (Sieggy) before skill trees starts coming out.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Trance-Paradise One

Sheesh, I'm kinda managing my hectic life right now. Essay due on wednesday.....and I haven't did anything.
And I promised that guy to go and watch him on Thursday when he's performing his play.
So flipping busy again.
Ah well.....
And I realised I've been into drawing much more than normal recently. I guess it's the effects of joining an art guild O.o Since before, I prefer doing typographies much more.....but this is gonna be fun to go through ^^

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Crying Soul...

I am so flipping busy right now ;~;
Well, it feels that way.
Well, I'll go to sleep after writing this journal entry for the project then.....
And I'm making an AMV for my sister, since her birthday's coming up soon....
Sigh. I feel so pressured right now......
I guess I need to take a break some time soon, or I'm gonna snap.
EDIT: I can't believe I actually erm.....cried last night o.o
Well, I guess it's needed, since having no one to go for your parent's meeting and everyone looks at me as if it's my fault is not very pleasant....it's a PARENT'S MEETING. Since when did students has to care about that flipping thing? Makes me feel unloved ;~;
On another note, I'm back to Grand Chase. But I made myself a promise I'll only dungeon thrice and Pvp twice per day.

Friday, November 13, 2009

New Days~

It is done!
Phew, took me forever to do it. Since I have to do a lot of cleaning this time....
I really should have take my shower before finishing this one.
.......
Why are you staring at me? D:
But on another note, I have no school on Friday (today), so I'm gonna do my essay a little bit, and then reply to the forums.....just gonna take it easy today and try not to start a new project....