It is Friday Night. Your only chunk of free time all weekend is tonight from 6:00 to 11:00.
Before deciding how you will spend this time, consider these factors:
• You have $40 to spend.
• You have an economics test on Monday.
• This is the last basketball game of the season.
• It is your mother’s birthday.
• Someone you like has asked you out on a date.
• Your favorite band is in town tonight.
Fill in a table like the one below showing how you plan to spend your time. Create your own
activities or choose from the list of possible activities. If you choose an activity from the list,
use the given time and price.
 Basketball game: 3 hours, $5
TIME
ACTIVITY
PRICE
 Dinner: 2 hours, $20
6:00 p.m.
 Movie: 2 hours, $10
 Rock concert: 4 hours, $40
7:00 p.m.
 Study for test: variable time, $0
8:00 p.m.
 Hang out at friend’s house:
9:00 p.m.
variable time, $0
 Work at job: variable time,
10:00 p.m.
▪

earn $10 per hour
Family time: variable time, $0
1. What decisions did you have to make in this
exercise?
2. What constraints did you face when making
these decisions?
3. How does this illustrate that we live in a world of
scarcity?


Chose a topic from your life
Create a comic strip that demonstrates your ability to think
like an economist by accurately and creatively illustrating
these basic economic principles in a story line. Each term
should have its own box.
▪ evaluated for creativity, accuracy and effort
 scarcity
 wants
 resources
 choice
 opportunity costs
 rationing device
Thinking in terms of:
Costs & Benefits
Trade-offs
Opportunity Costs
Unintended effects
Global economy
Micro/Macro
Example of this type of
thinking:

Economists view human actions using the
concepts of:







Scarcity
Choice-cost/benefit analysis
Opportunity costs
Trade-offs
Marginal choice
What might have been
Unintended consequences

A consequence of scarcity is that people must
make choices and compete for resources.
 Resources (human, natural, capital) are needed to
produce goods and services.

A rationing device is a way of determining who
gets what and how much.
 Price is a common rationing device.
 Ex. Titanic – How would you ration life boats in a life and
death situation?

Cost v. Benefit – a person will do whatever he
is considering only if the benefits are greater
than the costs

Trade off – more of one thing means less of
something else

A situation in which more
of one thing means less of
something else.
 Ex. If a country spends more
on national defense than it
will have less to spend on
health care or education.


Effective decision making requires comparing
the additional costs of alternatives with the
additional benefits.
Most choices involve doing a little more or a
little less of something: few choices are "all or
nothing" decisions.
▪ marginal choices
As you watch the clip from Titanic, write down examples
of scarcity, rationing devices and opportunity costs.
 With your partner, discuss the following questions and
record your thoughts:

1. What are the scarce goods and how are they rationed among
the passengers?
2. As the Titanic begins to sink, how does “life or death” scarcity
change the way goods are rationed among passengers?
3. The cruise line chose not to have enough lifeboats for all the
passengers. Using your knowledge of the movie, explain the
opportunity cost of having the extra deck space.
4. Explain the opportunity costs Rose pays in choosing Jack over
Hockley. What would you say is the “price” Rose paid for her
love of Jack?
5. Titanic portrays many difficult choices that passengers made on
that ill-fated night. Using your notes, discuss the opportunity
costs of three of the passengers’ choices.
6. Identify the rationing devices used in the following scenes from
Titanic:
▪
▪
▪
▪
The tickets Jack and his friend obtain to board the Titanic
First class luxury seats
Boarding lifeboats in the early stages of the disaster, when people are
unaware of, or ignored, the coming dangers.
Boarding lifeboats after the passengers were aware that the ship was
sinking rapidly and there were too few lifeboats.