Question

Someone posted from a discussion question.... Respond to it

Economics most certainly affects my daily life everyday. From the moment I get in my car in the morning and decide where I'll purchase my morning coffee, to the school I send my children to, to the store I will purchase our clothing in and to where I buy my groceries. Before I took this class I did not understand how influential store flyers were to my purchasing habits. In march when Covid began to take over my town necessary supplies such as Lysol wipes, toilet paper, cleaning supplies have all been limited or gone all together. These are all influential purchases created by the economics of the deadly disease. The supply chain has been affected, and I am unsure of how long it will take to recover. As an American, I was unaware of how great we have it as a country. To be able to buy everything we need at the tap of our fingertips. If I take away anything from this class, besides how cool I think economics are now, is that they will continue to affect my life daily forever. The greater the power, the richer the source.

Answer 1

Let me provide your certain valuable insights which will further help you understand the influences of economics in your daily life:

1. We read in economics that resources are scarce. Mind you, resource are scarce not only in pandemic days (or any other turbulent days) but during the normal days as well. If you see closely, all resources (or consumables) that you use in daily life, in one way or the other, are coming from the nature. And there is nothing in the nature which is in infinite supply. Even oxygen is in a limited quantity (though it seems too large now that we do not bother much, but it is limited anyway). Even drinking water is limited, you see.
2. You talked about store-flyers. Actually that idea comes from the 'marketing' subject which is also very closely integrated with the 'economics' subject at any point of time. Usually marketing is very smart. It is smart to an extent that generally it focusses only on the short-run economic goals of the enterprises. Businesses that fail after sometime, do realize, that only because they focussed more on marketing than on economics, they couldn't run for long.
3. You also talked about supply chains. See, disturbances in the supply chain is always a temporary problem. In economics, come what may, no matter what the scenarios be, the market (which is an inevitable match of demand and supply) happens to find out its equilibrium. Supply chain problems are the day-to-day business problems, which WILL get resolved in certain period of time. Seeing the long horizons, economics says, even here the new equilibrium point will evolve. Yes, it remains the duty of government and market regulators that the new equilibrium point (new match of demand and supply) must not create a strain on consumers' pockets.
4. Don't worry on when supply chain problem will be overcome. Believe me, businesses want it more badly than you. You are waiting but they are working day and night for it. Just learn how to enjoy the present days with certain limitations. Consumers should not bound themselve too much with their old habits; else they start spoiling all natural principles of economics as well as their own monthly budget.

Economics is anyways a social science - though in more technical and theorist way. It helps an individual, a family, a business, an industry, a market, a nation and yes, the whole world too. Whether or not we come to know about it, economics is there for each of us.

Wish you all the best. It feels great to see two people on the same page.