In addition to teaching English, I teach Economics now and then and have done so for years. When students start to sign up for classes, I occasionally hear a student insist that she'll not sign up for Econ because "it's just all about money, isn't it?" And, of course, others will sign up for it because they think it will, in fact, be about money and, specifically, how to make a bunch (though for the life of me I can't understand why they'd consult a high school English teacher on that point).
So here's my response to those concerned about what an Econ class is and is not:
What Economics Is NOT:
Saying "Economics is about money" is like saying "English is about the alphabet."
Economics is not about how to get rich. You will NOT learn how to play the stock market. You WILL learn the purpose of the stock market as a way of distributing resources.
Economics IS about . . . .
The main arena of thought that underlies decision making at the individual, community, and global level.
Psychology: Are we rational when we make choices? If so, how does that rationality express itself? If not, can we predict how we're not rational and why? How do we assess the costs of our decisions -- not the monetary costs alone?
Philosophy: What is a just distribution of finite resources in our communities, our country, our world? What kind of systems are created for the just distribution of resources? What is the "good life"? Can we use economics to understand that question? To maximize the consideration of the question?
Politics: What is the intersection of economics and political processes?
Environmental Science: How can we use economics systems or curtail economic systems in order to save the world?
The image above has no relation to my thoughts on Economics.
