Yes, I know this is really a massive field, but I’m keeping it as one page until I can break it up myself. It is very scattered thoughts as I learn more and talk to more people.
Currently reading Modern Principles of Economics
Economics is the study of scarcity. When you want to have everything, but you cannot afford to get it all, how do you best allocate these resources? Notice, that this definition does not talk about money, since economics is not truly about money. Money is just one way that economics can arise and where the problem of scarcity is very much felt. You can also study it on different units like time, incentives, etc.
Money is one of the greatest human stories of all time. If you asked the people during bartering times, how can you ensure that the work a farmer does can be traded for a blacksmith but across all disciplines, this is essentially O(N^2). But by having this common resource and each acting selfishly, we’re somehow able to coordinate. (Does this count as a form of complex system?)
Specialization only is powerful is people do their own thing however.
Questions
- What kind of markets lead to the least waste?
- It seems like the textbook I was reading sort of assumes a well-mixed population such that each buyer and seller are the same, but in the real world, that is not the case. Are there networks where you can inhibit economic convergence?
- What is the price of a human life?
- Is EBay creating value or simply helping people out? (This
question is poorly phrased.) Like is the value of the item
intrinsic or only created as a result of the market it is exposed
to and itself.
- Does anything have value within itself? This is like the koan of if a tree fell in a forest but no one heard, has it really fallen?
- How have social media and mass consumption affected specialization?