🚀 go-pugleaf

Please do not throw lethal objects at me because I posted the below 
sampling from a book outline I have written.  I seeking any help in 
finding a publisher.  Please also cc me to L.Bell12@genie.geis.com
UNDERSTANDING ECONOMICS IS POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE

     There is a certain group in this country who would love you
to think that a degree in business or econ is a requirement to
understand this subject and any materials written regarding it. 
Nothing could be farther from the truth!

     Most economic principles can be explained in layperson's
language without ever referring to statistics, (oh my Dear -
math!) or the hated curves which the world's economists use
continually to punctuate every statement, as if curves and graphs
had replaced normal English punctuation.

     Economic principles dictate how the market operates, even
during times of trouble. We are all affected in our personal and
business lives by the state of the market.  This book is
dedicated to any and everyone who has decided to expand his
knowledge on how the world of the market really works.  Children,
if introduced, to the world of economics at an early age, will
make wiser decisions as they grow and develop in the world
surrounding them. Teaching materials for either primary school or
high school students is very limited.

     Several years back, there was a great story in Inc. Magazine
about a fourth grade school teacher whose method of teaching her
students regarding the laws of supply revolved around their own
bakery shop.  They produced one product - chocolate chip cookies. 
They were given the responsibility of researching the number of
potential customers (the teachers and the rest of the students in
the school). They also made decisions on pricing, distribution
and supply.  The incentive was very simple.  If they did their
homework and the project turned profitable, the profits were
divided among the students at the end of the semester.  The
experiment was successful.

     Throughout the context of this book, the tone will be to
teach by similar examples and to pull business case histories
from headlines to explain what lies in the shadows behind the
reported story. Individuals can use the background information to
improve both their business and personal portfolio decision
making.

     Additionally, one very important point to keep in mind,
while reading this entire book, understanding these principles
will teach you to reason in the short and long run.  Without this
knowledge and insight, time and again, you will find yourself
looking for an easy way out, both in your personal and business
life.  Making a quick choice without being able to weigh the
options with the proper skills will bring one companion to your
life that we can all do without - chaos.

CHAPTER ONE
Economics what is, and what it isn't
     Nobody is exempt from needing to understand basic economic
principles.  This is powerful information and will change the way
you think and conduct your life in the future.  You even may
scare way some friends and colleagues when words like scarcity
and opportunity cost start popping up in your daily
conversations.  Economics affects all households, students,
business owners, professionals and ordinary folks from every walk
of life.  We live in a scary world and economic understanding
holds the key to explaining some of its mysteries.

     Like it or not, definitions are a part of this book. 
Economics is not a science, but rather an art, no matter how much
the markets' practitioners would like us to think otherwise.  The
reason I couch it in this terminology is to compare its study
with that of law.  There are no specific answers.  Every specific
question comes with a qualifier attached to it.  It's one of the
reasons economists tend to write sentences with dependent
clauses.  They despise making specific statements.  This would
mean that a principle would result in the same action despite
outside and intervening conditions.  It's simply not true. 
Economic principles, as stated in text books, only hold true as
face value definitions inside laboratory conditions. 
Unfortunately, life has a nasty  habit of not wanting to go
along.  So we have principles; we have definitions, but the
tricky part is they don't create the same answers in all given
situations.  Rising prices during a time of prosperity can create
an increase in profit margins in the aggregate.  Rising prices
during a period of high unemployment can create lost profits,
loss of jobs, a slow down in the market and an increase in
inventories.  You get the picture.  It isn't the action so much
as what is going on behind the scenes that is important.

     Economics is the study of the allocation of scare resources. 
There is never enough to go around to everyone who wants a piece
of any given market.  Think in terms of a gigantic balloon
partially inflated.  When you go to the market and purchase a
quantity of goods, you are stepping on a space which is inflated.
It will move around to another spot you cannot see.  Where it
lands will pinpoint the group or individual who desired to buy
the same product or service you did, but now has to go without.

     Applying the principles of economics gives us a feel for
where the products are going, how they will get there, the prices
currently in any given market, and the expectations to the
market's ups and down in the short and long term.

     The current discussion in the press over the furor over the
health care industry is a good example of how we as a nation do
not understand scarcity.  Bottom line to this whole discussion is
one simple fact, which never seems to reach the headlines.  There
are not enough health care providers/services to go around.  If
every man woman and child who was slightly ill, started demanding
care by presenting an identification card, the impact on the
economy would be devastating.  There are not enough doctors,
nurses, hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical supply  houses to
deal with the new influx of business.  Since the institution of
any of the proposed plans would regulate/control the amount that
can and will be charged for these services, the impact is simple
- a gigantic portion of the market participants would disappear. 
They couldn't afford to deal with the new customers without
increasing their prices.  They would go out of business.  They
would take their business and start working underground.  Move
across the border.  A great increase in homeopathic medicine
would arrive on the scene and the health care industry in America
would be changed forever.  If you stop and think of what happened
to it back in the 80s when the enforced price controls over
certain charges were instituted, you would see the picture.  Many
hospitals went out of business.  They turned to profit making
organizations and only offered partial service to customers. 
There just isn't enough manpower in the health care industry to
take care of the increased business which would occur, if this or
any other prospective health care package passed in the market's
current state.  Any reorganization that jeopardizes the health
care industry could throw the whole economy for a loop.  This
industry accounts for 1/7 of the national economy according an
article in the Los Angeles Times.  

     We, as a country, are being led by politicians whom only
care about the decisions they make regarding allocation of
resources in the short run.  They realize that their jobs, terms,
will be over by the time the long term effects of their decisions
come around and look for somebody to snap at. 

     As harsh as it sounds, there simply is not enough health
care to go around.  

     This brings us to the second term which is necessary in this
discussion.  It is tied directly to the understanding of
scarcity.  It is choice.  Hmm, you may be muttering, that's
simple.  We all do that.  But, think about it a little more.  We
are all familiar with the concept of budgeting.  Every time you
go to the market and make one purchase, you have lost the chance
to purchase one of similar value.  Dollars, next to time, are the
easiest recognizable commodity tied to scarcity.

     So decision making requires any business owner or individual
consumer to realize allocation of present dollars may have a long
term effect on you or your business.  But the economist will
argue, I don't worry about dollars; I worry about income.  In
days gone by, this was true.  In days of consistent recession
pressure and uncertain job futures, nobody is assured of future
income.