Introduction
What is Economics?
The world of economics is all around us. Pick up any newspaper or news magazine and you’ll find countless articles that pertain to economic issues and problems. You’ll see the same thing whenever you watch the evening news. Cable television frequently offers special programs devoted to economics and business topics. You may quickly dismiss or totally overlook these issues and problems, thinking they’re unimportant or irrelevant to you. However, most economic issues have far‑reaching consequences and do affect you and your family more than you may realize at this moment. The events behind the headlines that report layoffs at the local auto parts plant, an increase in the gasoline tax, the passage of a new national defense spending bill, the decision to build a new high school, or a slump in the Dow Jones averages touch all of us in various ways.
You will find that there is a large amount of factual information presented in this course. More important than your mastery of these facts is the development of your talents as a critical thinker. It is essential for you to acquire the tools necessary for thinking clearly and reasoning objectively, not just in this course, but in many other areas of your life. With a basic understanding of economics and good critical-thinking skills, not only will you be in a better position to understand why things happen the way they do, but you may also be able to have some control over them. To see where you will be going in this course, scan the table of contents located in the front of Economics: Today and Tomorrow by Roger LeRoy Miller (New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2008, ISBN 978-0-07-874766-3), the textbook for this course. You will discover that we will be studying a variety of topics. At first glance, you may still be thinking to yourself, “How does all of this apply to me?” By the time you have finished the last lesson, however, the answer to that question should be obvious. When you have completed the course, you should have at least a basic understanding of what the U.S. economic system is like, how the system functions, why it functions the way it does and, finally, how you fit into the total picture of economics.
