Topic 1: Big Questions

 The study of economics is based in two big questions. The first is “How do choices end up determining what, how, and for whom goods and services get produced?” If you think about PAS as an economy, and everyone at PAS as both a producer and consumer, this question can be answered in twofolds. Firstly, the faculty are the ones who produce the "knowledge" which are produced for the students. Hence, the knowledge is the what, the faculty is the who, and the students are the for whom. The products are produced by the teaching and the passing on of knowledge. Another way to look at this, it can be seen that the students are the one producing the "results" and it can either be for themselves, or for the faculty or adults or administration, or whoever cares about their grades. Thus, the "results," either in the form of SAT results, GPA, college admission, etc., are the what, the students are the who, and the person who supervises the grades are the for whom. The products are produced by the students taking in the knowledge and producing results. If you look at it in terms of its relationship with each other, you may find that they are actually a circle. Teachers effectively passing on knowledge to students causes the students to produce good results, which in turn allows the teacher to keep on teaching, and its like a happy cycle. It resembles a market in that in the "real world," companies produce products which the customers purchase, the things enable the customers to do certain actions, i.e. make money, which in turn is used again in the purchasing, which then gives the company money. So it's a happy cycle!

The second big question is “When do choices made in the pursuit of self-interest also promote the social interest?” The social interest basically is what is good for the society as a whole. In my opinion, I feel that as mentioned above, the self-interest in the promotion of one's own future and knowledge benefits the teachers, and in turn makes a circle. So, again, answering this questions in two parts: in the pursuit of self-interest by the purchasing items, you benefit all those working for the company producing the items and the immediately affected ones. On the other hand, the producing of products helps the people in between the production, as well as the customer.