Introduction to Economics Video Lecture | SSC CGL Tier 2 - Study Material, Online Tests, Previous Year

0:0:6: Over the past few centuries, human  civilization has grown exceedingly complex.
0:0:12: Unlike the primitive bartering of ancient  cultural centers, we now deal with a
0:0:16: monstrous global economy, which necessitates  the handling and transfer of currency,
0:0:22: often via physically intangible forms in this  information age. But as abstract as this seems,
0:0:29: whether we realize it or not, economics affects  us all. So what does it mean? Upon hearing the
0:0:36: word economics, one would certainly think about  money, but more specifically, the manner in which
0:0:42: wealth is distributed. Or perhaps immediately  personal and relatable concepts like wages and
0:0:48: taxes. Then there are slightly more large-scale  concepts like recessions, gross domestic product,
0:0:55: and the stock market. However, most of these  concepts belong to the realm of macroeconomics,
0:1:1: which involves looking at national and global  economies. In this series, we will start out
0:1:7: with an in-depth survey of microeconomics, which  involves studying how economics affects individual
0:1:14: decisions, the kind that we all make every day.  This will give us the context and foundational
0:1:20: knowledge to then expand into macroeconomics, such  that all of these larger concepts will suddenly be
0:1:27: more relatable. And finally to wrap up the  series, we will look at personal economics,
0:1:32: which involves examining how we use economic  foundations to navigate our lives. That means
0:1:39: we will go over budgeting, bank accounts, and  even things like how to use a credit card.
0:1:44: But before we get to all of these topics, we have  to start at the very beginning, and boiled down to
0:1:49: its essence, economics all comes down to choice.  For example, if you are watching this video,
0:1:56: you made a choice to watch it. Now, it’s possible  that a teacher may be compelling you to watch this
0:2:1: right now, but regardless, someone made a choice.  You could be doing a thousand other things at
0:2:7: this moment, like riding a bike, or making  tortellini, but out of all of those things,
0:2:12: you’re here on my channel. First, thanks for  watching, of course. And second, the fact that you
0:2:18: made the choice to watch this video is a fantastic  example for demonstrating what economics is on the
0:2:24: fundamental level. Economics is the study of how  we make choices based on scarcity. One of the most
0:2:32: important concepts in economics is scarcity.  Scarcity is a term that simply refers to the
0:2:38: fact that we have endless wants and needs, but a  limited amount of resources to fulfill those wants
0:2:45: and needs. To be clear with our terminology,  a resource is anything that is useful to us.
0:2:51: This doesn’t strictly refer to natural resources  like water. This term could refer to your teacher,
0:2:58: this video, or the pen and paper you take notes  with, presuming that you are taking notes right
0:3:3: now like a good student. But regardless of  the type of resource, they all have limits.
0:3:8: If there was an endless supply of  everything, economics would not exist.
0:3:14: We are constantly weighing our wants and needs to  make choices due to scarcity. And the three most
0:3:20: common examples of limited resources are  time, money, and energy. For example,
0:3:27: let’s say that you need to learn economics.  Perhaps you don’t have the time to watch all of
0:3:33: my economics tutorials because you’re busy at  your job. Perhaps you don’t have the money to
0:3:38: pay for economics instruction at a university. Or  perhaps you don’t have the energy or the patience
0:3:44: to sit and practice working through many difficult  economics problems. The limited amounts of these
0:3:50: resources can have an impact on one’s ability  to fulfill this need of learning economics.
0:3:57: To define some more terms, we satisfy our  wants and needs with goods and services.
0:4:4: Goods are the physical stuff that we produce,  like food, clothing, and electronic devices.
0:4:11: Services are actions or activities  we perform, like delivering food,
0:4:16: dry cleaning articles of clothing, and fixing  electronic devices. All goods and services
0:4:23: are said to be scarce because they are necessarily  in limited supply. This is because the resources
0:4:30: used to make goods and the time required  to perform services are inherently limited.
0:4:37: Now to be clear, scarcity does not  specifically refer to a shortage.
0:4:41: A shortage occurs when consumers want a larger  quantity of a good or service than producers
0:4:47: are willing or able to make available at a certain  price. Unlike shortages, which are circumstantial,
0:4:54: scarcity always exists, simply because resources  and humans are not infinite in number. This is
0:5:2: why economics will always exist, and since we  can’t escape it, we’d better learn about it now!
0:5:8: Hopefully we now understand a bit more clearly  what the field of economics studies, and why it
0:5:14: is of such universal concern. Just as with many  scientific principles that we interact with every
0:5:20: day, whether we are aware of it or not, economics  shapes the world we live in, and the choices
0:5:26: that we make. So together let’s learn all about  economics, such that we can better understand why
0:5:33: we make the choices that we do, and potentially  make more informed decisions in the future.