![]() Labor is a factor of production that refers to people and their work.How do economies change? The entire history of economic progress can be recapitulated in the four-stage evolution of the birthday cake. Land, however, also includes all natural resources such as oil and gas, air, water, and even wind. It contains the land for agricultural or building purposes, or mining, for example. Land is arguably the densest factor of production. Let's briefly go over each of them in turn! How should the factors of production be allocated to produce the required things? What would be the efficient way to make food, and what would be the efficient way to make cars? How much labor force is there in a community? How would these choices impact the affordability of the final product? All these questions are densely combined in one question - how to produce? The Economic Problem: For whom to produce?įactors of production are the inputs used in the production process. This first and foremost question helps to identify a set of things that society needs to sustain itself in balance. Of course, no society can sustain itself if all the resources are spent on defense, and none are spent on food production. ![]() This is the first question that needs to be answered if society is to allocate its resources efficiently. Now let's discuss each of these questions in turn. You may think, wait a minute, I scrolled all the way here to find some answers, not more questions!īear with us and look at Figure 1 below to see how our wants are connected to the three basic economic questions. What do they have to do with the fundamental economic problem? Well, these questions provide a basic framework for allocating scarce resources. What are the three basic economic questions? Are there enough resources to satisfy all those desires? But here's the real kicker: the global population is rising, and everyone has wants and needs. Because resources such as land, labor, and capital are scarce, people and societies must make choices about how to allocate them.Įconomists call this lack of resources scarcity. The economic problem is the fundamental challenge facing all societies, which is how to satisfy unlimited wants and needs with limited resources. Is there hope for the future of humanity to sustain itself without depleting the vast resources of the precious planet we call home? This article will help you find this out! The Economic Problem Definition While your wants are unlimited, the world's resources are not. The more you have, the more you want this is the fundamental economic problem. Someone has smaller ones, but someone has larger ones. Now, imagine the extent of everyone's wants and wishes. It may well be that an increase in comfort or convenience provided you with some happiness, albeit short-lived. Our modern lives have become so comfortable that we often don't stop to think whether another thing we recently bought was actually a necessity or simply a want.
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