Fundamentals of Economics. Доловова Н.Н - 41 стр.

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made in Japan. You get dressed in clothes made of cotton grown in Georgia and sewn
in factories in Thailand. You drive to class in a car made of parts manufactured in
more than a dozen countries around the world. Then you open up your economics
textbook written by an author living in Massachusetts, published by a company
located in Texas, and printed on paper made from trees grown in Oregon.
Every day you rely on many people from around the world, most of whom you
do not know, to provide you with the goods and services that you enjoy. Such
interdependence is possible because people trade with one another. Those people who
provide you with goods and services are not acting out of generosity or concern for
your welfare. Nor is some government agency directing them to make what you want
and to give it to you. Instead, people provide you and other consumers with the goods
and services they produce because they get something in return.
Our economy coordinates the activities of millions of people with varying
tastes and abilities. Let’s consider the reasons for economic interdependence. One of
the Ten Principles of Economics highlighted in previous lessons is that trade can
make everyone better off. This principle explains why people trade with their
neighbors and why nations trade with other nations. In this lesson we examine this
principle more closely. What exactly do people gain when they trade with one
another? Why do people choose to become interdependent?
To understand why people choose to depend on others for goods and services
and how this choice improves their lives, let's look at a simple economy. Imagine that
there are two goods in the world—meat and potatoes. And there are two people in the
world—a cattle rancher and a potato farmer—each of whom would like to eat both
meat and potatoes.
The gains from trade are most obvious if the rancher can produce only meat
and the farmer can produce only potatoes. In one scenario, the rancher and the farmer
could choose to have nothing to do with each other. But after several months of
eating beef roasted, boiled, broiled, and grilled, the rancher might decide that self-
sufficiency is not all it's cracked up to be. The farmer, who has been eating potatoes
mashed, fried, baked, and scalloped, would likely agree. It is easy to see that trade
would allow them to enjoy greater variety: Each could then have a hamburger with
French fries.
Although this scene illustrates most simply how everyone can benefit from
trade, the gains would be similar if the rancher and the farmer were each capable of
producing the other good, but only at great cost. Suppose, for example, that the potato
farmer is able to raise cattle and produce meat, but that he is not very good at it.
Similarly, suppose that the cattle rancher is able to grow potatoes, but that her land is
not very well suited for it. In this case, it is easy to see that the farmer and the rancher
can each benefit by specializing in what he or she does best and then trading with the
other.
The gains from trade are less obvious, however, when one person is better at
producing every good. For example, suppose that the rancher is better at raising cattle
and better at growing potatoes than the farmer. In this case, should the rancher or
farmer choose to remain self-sufficient? Or is there still reason for them to trade with

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