Opinion

EVERYDAY ECONOMICS
By: Jeremy D. Balondo

Everyone is an economist.

In varying degrees in technical competence and nature of applications,

of course, we are all economists, whether we like it or not, whether we
are aware of it or not. The moment we make decision, any decision,
you become an economist.

But not all are good economists; and not everyone make good
decisions neither.

What is economics? Is it really important to everyday life? Does

knowledge and expertise in it contribute significantly to the welfare of
the society? What does economists do? And more, importantly, what
kind of employment can I get after getting an AB Economics degree
from NSU? Perhaps you may have these questions and so much more.
Anyway, I will attempt to answer them the best way I can.

There are many definitions of what does the word “economics” means.
Some definitions are too technical, too theoretical and too academic
that ordinary persons are confused rather than be enlightened.
Samuelson defined economics as the study of how societies use scarce
resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among
different people. In short, economics is making the best of what we
have left.

The science of economics came to existence because resources are

scarce. Almost everything is scarce, nowadays. I guess the only things
that are not getting scarce are our troubles and problems. The land we
till, the marine resources we consume, the water drink and use, the
food we eat, our salary we spend, the mineral deposits we mine from
the bowels of the earth, and so on and so forth, they are all scarce.
They become less and less as more people consume them endlessly.
Making the best use of these resources had become the focus of
economics as a body of knowledge.

Governments and big organizations employ the services economists to

help them make the right decision on how to best use available scarce
resources. Legislators consult economists in crafting economic policies
like infrastructure programs, development programs, taxes, interest
rates, currency rates, minimum wage rates, etc. In fact, former
President Arroyo is an economist herself.

These economists are at the national level. How about the local and
personal level? Do we need economics in our everyday life? Most
probably yes. If you feel scarcity, if you feel your salary is not enough
to cover all your expenses, if you feel your house is too small for your
growing family, if you don’t have enough to time to do all the things
that you want, if at your office you always run out of supplies, or if you
have to wake up till midnight just to wait for the water so that you can
take a bath the following day, then, you need knowledge on
economics.
The fact is, we are all economists, without us knowing it. In dealing
with scarcity, we economize. With the small salary we receive, we
spend on what we think is at the top of our list. We turn off the lights
when not in use to save on electricity. We walk rather than ride and
declare that we are committed to lose weight but deep inside we know
we are cutting on transportation expenses. We hitch rides; we treat
ourselves on free meals such as fiesta and the like and so on and so
forth. We do a lot of things just to make both ends meet. We are
economizing – therefore we are economists, with varying degrees of
course.

And who says that the academe and these high-paid economists have
the monopoly on the use and application of the Law of Supply and
Demand? Side walk vendors, peddlers, and market merchants are so
familiar and know the law by heart. They are skillfully applying the
same to their advantage that they don’t need to graph data just so
they can compute for the equilibrium price before they can decide
what price to assign to the goods they are selling.

Sidewalk vendors knows by heart what is their break even selling price
and would be ready to give discount to lure customers making them
believe they get a killing on huge price reduction while the vendor is
safe knowing that the price is still above the break-even point.

And who are the everyday economists that I admire most? The
mothers. Some of them have bachelors and doctors degree but most of
them do not have a diploma and did not take a crash course on
household management. Most of them are On-The-Job trainees yet,
they are always quick with their computations in their head. They are
quick and resourceful in making the most of the limited family income.

They are incredibly skillful in economizing. National-level economists

and self-acclaimed academic achievers could not comprehend how
mothers could feed her hungry children and how a kilo of fish be
enough for three meals for a household of six, or how a bar of soap or
a sachet of detergent last for a week. In fact, the list could go on
endlessly.

I had a personal experience in the past wherein I was preparing a

report on the socio-economic baseline survey as part of the proposal
for funding form international funding agencies. They could not believe
that these people are still surviving with the very minimal income they
have declared on their questionnaires.

Lastly, what job opportunities await the graduates of AB Economics

students? I could say that there are many. Any job that involves
decision making, an economist could be most fitting. The fact that we
employ knowledge on economics on our everyday life, this only proves
that a person technically competent on it has undue advantage.