Messy Economy
The economy is something that can be a very tricky topic, and is something that a lot of people struggle with. Personally I have always struggled with truly understanding it myself, and this made me view the economy from a few different angles, and educating me a different ways. Bylund explores the cascading impacts of reforms to shed light on how rules affect people's daily lives. Bylund is able to enlighten the reader by presenting a model for comprehending the economy and market and so offers a fundamental knowledge of the economy as a creature instead of a machine. Regulations are limitations imposed on how the economy operates, and they have both intentional and unexpected, direct and indirect effects. Although the indirect effects are also widely understood, they are frequently disregarded since they don't fit with the way an economy is viewed by machines. More importantly, Bylund is able to highlight the actual impacts of regulation and market reform on individual players, highlighting how the economy functions to give a person the options they have in decision-making scenarios. We develop a new definition of prosperity and well-being that emphasizes a person's access to worthwhile options. From this vantage point, rather than looking at the consequences on the economy as a whole, the real implications of regulation are tracked step by step, following the logic of exchange.
Does it work? Well, it depends on what we mean by "work". If by "work" we mean that the outcome is of a structure that dovetails with what we would personally prefer, then the answer is probably no. (Bylund pp.3)
Bylund does a very good job with this by first engaging with the reader by asking a question making us really think if it works or not. He then goes to explain why we should continue to learn about the tricky topic of the economy as it is important for us as a society to learn about it before we use it. The economy is a very tricky thing to master, Bylund states "...the market works in one way or another-regardless of our personal preferences..."(Bylund pp.4) and it can often work in ways that we may not be expecting. It may work in a way that we do not want at all and there is nothing that we can do about it sometimes.
Understanding the Market
The market economy is simply made up of exchanges between people, and it survives off of that in order to continue moving. The more and more people continue to exchange goods for the better of themselves, the better and healthier the market will be. The way people value certain things plays a major factor in the role of the market and it's goods. One person may value a certain good much more than another person, and it is all a huge factor in the market.
Economics
There is a a lot to unwrap with economics and how it relates to the economy, and how we live our everyday lives.
The economy is all of us economizing. (Bylund pp. 16)
I really like what Bylund is saying here, because in our everyday lives we use economics all the time without even thinking about it. If we are saving up for a certain item and then something else comes up, we must prioritize what we need and make decisions based on what we feel is best for us. For us in society, we must make sacrifices all the time, to give up one thing in order to purchase another, and we use economics without even knowing it. One of the major problems in economics is often the lack of resources. When demand is higher or faster than a factory can produce, it can propose a huge problem for economics. Resources can be limited, which is why being extremely efficient is the goal of every successful venture. Understanding the value of economics and the way to look at it is the most important thing to understand when becoming an economist.
Economics is based in the concept of human action
as purposeful behavior.(Bylund pp.22)
I really like what Bylund is saying here, I think he is really trying to point out how important it is for us as a society to be active in the economy, and to learn the mains aspects of it inside and out. Humans are the biggest factors in the change of the economy, the more active we are as a society, the more that the economy will produce.
Process
There is more to the economy than the production of a good that we see sitting on a store shelf. (Bylund pp.42)
There is so much about the economy that we may never see about the production from resources, to producing the item, transferring it, and then finally hitting the shelve on the store. It is a very extreme process that takes many people and lots of precise time to produce the right way. Innovation is key in the economy, without innovation the economy would not grow and be healthy, which is very important for a society.
I was thoroughly engaged reading your essay. It was really entertaining and informative. I appreciate the way you stayed on topic and covered all of Bylund’s points. I wish I could keep my writing as short as yours.
The first point that stuck out the most to me was when you mentioned Bylund’s economizing statement. You said,
I found this point really nice to read. It gave us a look at what economizing is in a practical sense. Describing the process of budgeting helps to not only simplify what it means to "economize," but also illustrate what that is. In particular, when you mention saving for something as a prioritization of needs and wants, I really like how this predisposes us to Bylund’s explanation of value ranking within human behavior when it comes to voluntary exchange. This makes your explanation really synergize with those breakdowns.
I agree that when we start to rank things we want and need, then plan, save, and budget accordingly, that is us economizing. Economizing really is a simpler thing than most probably think. This goes to show that anyone is a part of the economy and can have a hand in shaping it. You go on to highlight humans’ ability to do so. That was the second point that stood out to me.
I agree that humans are the most important factor in economic change. Humans are the market potential, the golden goose, and the money printing machine; we just forget that in our pursuit of monetary gains. We are the driving cogs behind the machine that is the economy.
The reality of humans feeding the economy also speaks to our ability. The fact that we can change the economy is a driving factor in our abilities as entrepreneurs. If we can harness this power, we can become even more successful as entrepreneurs. That is to say, an entrepreneur should try their hardest to keep their entrepreneurial sense in tune with our ability to change or influence the economy by actively staying in touch with society and what its current wants and needs are.
We may not know how it works, but knowing we can influence it can lead to a more productive society. It was nice to read your essay. Good job, and I hope you have a good day.
Well done, it was very well formatted and easy to understand the points you were making throughout the essay. It did a great job of showing the contrast between simplicity and complexity within economics. I like how you made economics seem very relatable and explained how common it is in every day life. The point you made about how important it is to have more people and higher activity within the market to make it perform at a higher efficiency shows how interactive it really is.
I agree with your comment on Bylund's quote saying
It is very important for people to understand how the market functions and is affected by the transactions made within it. Whether you are active in the market or not, it is helpful knowledge to be able to comprehend. I like the way you referred to a transaction as a sacrifice in which you have to give one thing up in order to obtain another of your desire. Your essay explained how the economy works in very simplistic terms while also making a point of the complexity of the market behind the scenes. It is a much lengthier process than just buying something off of the shelves and there are many steps to get it to the final point so the consumer can purchase items. Markets also interact online rather than your traditional stores where you would exchange money for goods, helping to expand the markets to many new customers but using the same logic and process as other economic markets. Online stores also allow for items to sell out and resources to be limited which raises the price, showing that different interactions affect the market in many ways.
The structure and wording of your essay make it easy to understand and relate to both Bylund's views and your comments and thoughts on them. Your use of block quotes and headings make the essay very fluid and easy to find and read the main points. Your summary of the text and critical thinking about the topics flowed very well throughout the essay. One of the better essays I have reviewed.
Great job! I think this is the most well written essay of all of the ones I have reviewed so far. You summed up Bylund's writings very well, and you, unlike other essays that I have read, kept your writing very concise and did not repeat yourself over and over. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about Bylund's simple definition of economics.
This definition makes economics feel understandable and simple. Although all throughout Bylund's writings, there was an understanding that economics is fluid and not to be strictly defined, but that in itself is a type of definition. This idea of exchange is an easy way to look at economics. No matter how educated or relevant a person is, they use economics every single day, knowingly or not.
With this being said, another thing that you touched on that Bylund talks about the importance of people being active in society and contributing to the economy. The more that people interact in society, the more that the economy will produce which is better for everyone. This goes to show that although there is truth to the idea that regardless of a persons education, they are still using economics every single day, there is also a lot of value in people being educated and interacting in society. There is so much that we don't know about the economy and the way that it works, but there is value in studying the information that we do have and educating yourself in order to be a more productive member of society.
The organization and content of your essay are both great. A lot of essays that I have seen so far fail to meet the formatting requirements, but you did a great job at using headings and block quotes. This made the reading process much easier. The content of your essay was also very good, you did a great job at summing up the ideas of Bylund's writings, while still being thorough enough to demonstrate a clear understanding of the content. Overall a really good job, and I enjoyed hearing your thoughts.