hands, that is an outcome. Later, we will take a look at other economic outcomes.
And the Winner Is – No One?
So far, we have seen that all games have certain features:
• Players
• Rules
• Properties
• Outcomes
It seems as if there is one more thing that is common to all games: a winner. Does an activity need a winner to be considered a game? Not necessarily.
Consider the game of tag. The players in tag are either «it» or «not it.» Which one is the winner? Do you win if you are not it? No, you are just one of the players who are not it. And being it does not make you the loser. You are just it until you tag someone else.
Tag has no winner because there is no rule that states when the game has to end. A game of tag does not end when somebody wins. It lasts until all the players decide to stop playing. Technically, a game of tag could go on forever. The same is true for economics.
Winners often get medals or trophies to show that they have won.
The Features of Games
To study economics, you need to understand how the various features of the game work. This means knowing about the different roles of the players and the rules they have to obey. It also means knowing about outcomes and understanding the properties that affect the way the game is played.
Economics is like a game. It has many of the attributes that all games have in common: players, rules, properties, and outcomes. But what kind of game is it? What do the players do?
Surprisingly, the answer is simple: Economics is a game in which players buy and sell goods and services. It has rules, properties, and outcomes that limit and direct how all that buying and selling takes place.
Goods and Services
Objects that fulfill someone’s needs and wants are called goods. You need food. A sandwich is a good that fulfills that need. Every time you buy a sandwich, you are a player in the game of economics.
What about things you want? Do you want to surf the Internet? A computer fulfills that want. A computer is a good. A DVD fulfills the want for entertainment, so it is a good, too. Just about every object fulfills some need or want.
All foods are goods, even if they do not taste good.
Sometimes our wants and needs cannot be fulfilled by goods, or objects. In that case, we might require a service. Services are actions or other types of assistance that customers need and want.
For example, when you need a trim, or you want to change your style, you get a haircut. But a haircut it is not an object. It is a service. Someone with a specific skill works to give you the trim you need or the style you want. Your stylist performs an action, or a service. However, he or she makes use of goods, such as scissors and a comb, to perform the service.
Giving someone a haircut is a service that requires goods like scissors and a comb.
Is Economics About Everything?
Not everything is a good or a service. For instance, when you pay someone to mow your lawn, you are buying a service. But when you mow your own lawn, you are just making the grass shorter.
In other words, an action that you perform for your own benefit is not a service. If you read a book, you are not doing anybody a service. You may be relaxing or learning. These are good things, but they are not services because you do them for yourself.
On the other hand, if you read a book out loud to somebody else, you are performing a service. A service is still a service even if someone offers it for free, but services rendered generally involve the exchange of money. The exchange might also be made using the barter system.
What Is Production?
Goods and services need to be made. This is known as production. Production is one of the things certain players in the game of economics do. A player who does this is known as a producer.
Production does not just happen. There are required to produce goods and services. Something needed for production is called a resource.
For example, you need flour to make a cake. The cake is a good, and the flour is a resource. Where did the flour come from? Originally, it came from a wheat field. So, the wheat field is a resource, too.
What It Takes to Make a Birthday Cake?
Let us say you want to make a birthday cake for someone. That is a service. It takes action to make a cake, and this action is valued. And it produces a good – a birthday cake. One of the main services in any economy is making goods. This service, called production, requires all kinds of resources. To make a cake, you need a kitchen. A kitchen is a resource.
Of course, you also need the stuff you make the good out of. If you are making a cake, you need flour and eggs and sugar and everything else in the recipe. These are some of the resources you need to make the cake. But you also need bowls, spoons, measuring cups, and a pan. These are resources, too. And finally, you need time and knowledge. In the end, you will put in a lot of effort. All of these things – time, knowledge, and effort – are resources.
Even a genie, who can make a birthday cake out of thin air, has to do something. Maybe the only action they have to take is saying, «Abracadabra.» But that still takes up the genie’s time and requires genie powers. Time and genie powers are resources. Even a genie needs some resources to produce a birthday cake.
Allocation
Resources are essential for production. But very few resources are easily available and ready to be used. Resources need to be found and set aside to produce specific goods. That is known as allocation.
Allocation involves making decisions. If you have a bag of flour, you have to decide whether you want to make cake or bread. That is a decision about the allocation of this resource.
Economics is a game of constant decision making. A lot of these decisions have to do with allocation.
Making decisions about how to allocate resources is part of many games, not just economics. A softball coach allocates players by deciding who plays what position and making the batting order.
What will you do with your flour?
Distribution and Consumption
Economics is about the allocation of resources to produce goods, but what do we do with these goods once they are produced? We use them, of course.
Using a good or a service
