Chapel Talk November 20, 2014
Good Morning:
How do we satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources? This is the
primary goal of economics. Although I'm not talking about solving world
hunger or deterring the energy crisis (you can talk to Mr. Ames about
those issues). Now Mr. Ames did throw out a profound line earlier this
year. He said, "Economics is the key to not failing life" and I took that to
heart, because, well, one, I didn't want to fail his class, but, two, I didn't
want to fail in life. Economics is not solely about playing the stock market
or solving a country's debt issues. It's about weighing the costs of
something relative to the benefits. An example would be: it's a Friday
night and you want to go to the movies with your friend. But you also have
a paper due Monday in Mr. Nabi's class. You've got 40% of your English
grade in one hand, and wasting a couple hours watching the latest,
mindless movie in the other. Now you're thinking like an economist.
Although, if you ask Mr. Nabi, I usually chose to watch the movie.
Back to the topic at hand: satisfying unlimited wants. Each day we're
faced with them, and each of us must take them head on instead of letting
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them completely dictate our thoughts. In my interpretation of the economic
question posed earlier, "wants" are relative to each person and we can
greatly stretch our limited resources to fit the situation. Time is life's most
valuable and coveted resource, it's something that's being perpetually
burned and few of us actually utilize it to the fullest. What would we be
without time? I was lucky enough to realize early on that time is fleeting
and that I must seize it. Even...