1. Welcome to “Teaching the California High School Economics Course” Gif Asimos Jim Charkins

2. What is Economics? T HE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL CHOICES CONCERNING THE USE OF RESOURCES AMONG COMPETING GOALS G ETTING THE BEST AND THE MOST FROM SCARCE RESOURCES H OW BEST TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS T HE GREATEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE YOUR STUDENTS

3. Economic Reasoning Not a subject Not a course A skill Like all skills, must be learned, then practiced A skill that will be useful to you for the rest of your life

4. Vocabulary Goal – something that a person wants to have or do Resource – something that can be used to achieve goals Human capital – skills, knowledge, experience, personal qualities Natural resources – resources that are present without human help, also called “land” Physical capital – goods that have been produced to produce other goods and services Entrepreneur – a person who organizes productive resources, takes risks, and finds new ways of combining resources to produce a product

5. Short term goals Do something fun after school Do something fun this weekend Learn to play a new video game Learn a new skill Earn some money to buy a car Get grades that will get you into college

6. Long Term Goals A good life –Friends –A house –Financial security –A good relationship –Respect –Health

7. Social Goals

8. Resources – inputs in production, things that can help achieve goals Natural Resources, also called Land Physical Capital Human Capital Entrepreneur

9. Human Capital

10. Land – Natural Resources

11. Physical Capital

12. Entrepreneurship

13. Some Misconceptions Corrected Not resources –Time –Money Economics and Finance are not the same –Economics is about resources –Finance is about money –Finance is an application of economic reasoning –– Finance is an application of economics

14. Bad News: Scarcity Our resources are insufficient to achieve all of our goals or to satisfy all of our wants. We can’t have everything we want. Wants/goals, not needs

15. A resource or good is scarce if: people want it there is not enough of it to fulfill everyone’s wants it has alternative uses using it ne way means giving up using it another way

16. Some things that are not scarce Trash My brother-in-law’s paintings Nuclear waste Snow in my driveway Weeds Disease Pollution

17. Good News: Economics Using economic reasoning, we can get more from the resources, like pulling rabbits out of a hat.

18. Scarcity and Economics Scarcity (the bad news): we can’t reach all of our goals; there aren’t enough resources. Economics (the good news): we can get the most from the resources we do have.

19. Economics is a tool to address personal issues: What college to attend Work or not work; how many hours? Who to date?

20. Economics is a tool to address social issues: Environment Endangered species Drug abuse Education Health care World poverty

21. Economics is about using resources to achieve goals Poverty

22. Economics is about using resources to achieve goals Poverty

23. 9/6/2015Lesson 1: Scarcity23 Individual Goals: What We Want Health Friends and Family Career Peace Love Stuff

24. 9/6/2015Lesson 1: Scarcity24 Social Goals: What We Want 1.More and better education 2.A cleaner environment 3.More and better health care 4.Greater public safety 5.Less stress 6.Preservation of non-renewable resources including natural resources 7.Elimination of poverty

25. Here’s the Deal Resources are insufficient to reach all of our goals. “We can’t have everything we want. We make choices. Choices have costs. So we should be careful about the choices we make. The question is always, “What is the best use of our resources?”

26. Economists Accusation: They tend to rely on market forces. They don’t really care about the poor. Response: In general, economists address all social policies by asking three questions: 1.Will the proposed policy achieve the goal? 2.Will it do so in an efficient manner compared to other proposals? Does the policy get the most and the best from scarce resources? 3.Does the proposal avoid unintended consequences? Economists are very interested in making a better world; they just want to do it efficiently.

27. Economics The problem – scarcity The goal – maximize individual and societal happiness The method –-- economic reasoning --- how best to use our scarce resources to achieve our goals Goals and resources