What does real-life economics REALLY mean?

Economics, Economics, Economics. Where do I even begin? See, after studying economics for the last couple of years, it has slowly started to click and make sense to me, but to others, economics is seen as something that only exists in books, stock charts, and complicated statistics that take a lot to process. In reality, economics is happening around us every day, all the time. It affects the prices we pay, the opportunities we have and take up, the decisions businesses make, and the choices we make with our own time and money. See, at the core of the term “economics”, it means the study of scarcity, choice, and how people use certain resources to satisfy their unlimited wants. Our human nature is to have those unlimited wants, but we really do not have them at our hands.  One thing I find interesting that I want to share as well. According to the Britannica encyclopedia, one of the most reliable encyclopedias, it mentions this statement: “ No one has ever succeeded in neatly defining the scope of economics.” Which is something I will get back to at a later date.

Turning to the main question at hand about real-life economics, this is how I like to approach it. Real-life economics is about looking past the numbers and understanding how those numbers actually affect people, like you and me. It can be seen in so many scenarios. Some examples are the rising prices around State College during a Penn State football weekend, or the cost of joining a fraternity; it can be seen in the way a restaurant operates behind the scenes, or even the financial challenges facing families and communities across the country. Even small everyday decisions can reveal something about supply, demand, incentives, opportunity, and human behavior, and trust me, everyone wants the same thing. 

On this page, I will explore how money, business, and economics connect to my own experiences and the world around me, hoping to share some insight into my mind. Some articles will focus on college life, sports, work, and business, while others will look at larger topics such as wealth, inequality, service, and opportunity. My goal is to make economics easier to understand while also remembering that there are real people and real stories behind every statistic. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them.