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DIAMOND-WATER PARADOX: The perplexing observation that water, which is more useful than diamonds, has a lower price. If price is related to utility, how can this occur? This paradox was first proposed by classical economists in the 19th century and was subsequently used as a stepping stone for developing the notion of marginal utility and the role it plays in the demand price of a good. The paradox is magically cleared up with an understanding of marginal utility and total utility. People are willing to pay a higher price for goods with greater marginal utility. As such, water which is plentiful has enormous total utility, but a low price because of a low marginal utility. Diamonds, however, have less total utility because they are less plentiful, but a high price because of a high marginal utility.
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                           ECONOMY: The system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services that a society uses to address the problem of scarcity. An economy can be simple, such as that illustrated by the hilarious antics of the hapless passengers and crew of the U.S.S. Minnow on the highly popular economic documentary, Gilligan's Island. Or it can be exceedingly complex, such as the modern U.S. economy with millions of workers, thousands of corporations, and trillions of dollars worth of capital that are used to produce trillions of dollars worth of goods and services for millions of people.Production and ConsumptionThe essential task of an economy is to transform resources into useful goods and services (the act of production), then distribute or allocate these products to useful ends (the act of consumption). Production involves the transformation of labor, capital, land, and entrepreneurship into more valuable goods and services. Consumption is then the use of these goods and services to satisfy the wants and needs of people.Markets and GovernmentVirtually all economies accomplish this production-consumption task through a combination of decisions made through voluntary market exchanges and involuntary government laws, rules, and regulations. Capitalism is the term used for those economies relying predominately on markets, while communism and socialism are the names for economies coming down more heavily on the side of government decision making.
Recommended Citation:ECONOMY, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: November 15, 2025].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching the newspaper want ads looking to buy either a 200-foot blue garden hose or a video camera with stop action features. Be on the lookout for fairy dust that tastes like salt.
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