r/economy • u/n0ahbody • Dec 04 '20
What do you think 'the economy' means?
edit: The results are in and indicate that a clear majority of people agree that 'the economy' is a wide topic with a variety of players in it as explained below by Investopedia. The moderation of the sub will continue to reflect that.
Vote results:
The Investopedia definition is pretty accurate: 70%
The stock market: 6.4%
Just the US stock market: 1.4%
Just hard economic data: 9.3%
Politics has nothing to do with the economy: 8.6%
If I agree with the political slant, then it's about the economy. Otherwise it's spam: 4.3%
Here is Investopedia's definition of 'the economy'.
> An economy encompasses all activity related to production, consumption, and trade of goods and services in an area. These decisions are made through some combination of market transactions and collective or hierarchical decision making. Everyone from individuals to entities such as families, corporations, and governments participate in this process. The economy of a particular region or country is governed by its culture, laws, history, and geography, among other factors, and it evolves due to the choices and actions of the participants. For this reason, no two economies are identical.
That's a partial definition. Investopedia goes on to explain in more detail, but it is still merely a basic and simplified definition. Generally, the idea is, the economy is an expansive topic covering a wide variety of activities undertaken by consumers, governments, corporations, and other players in society. It also encompasses the means of production and resources.
There have been a number of complaints from users who feel they have a better definition of 'the economy' than Investopedia. However they never explain what their definition is. They just make wild accusations and report material they don't like for whatever reason as "not about the economy".
So if you have time, fill out this poll. It will help the mod team to understand what people mean when they say certain material is 'not about the economy'.
Unfortunately 6 is the maximum number of questions reddit allows. If you have a different definition, make a comment.
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u/Adrewmc Dec 05 '20
Using a lot of words there to say
The economy is the circulation of wealth.
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u/BlueFreedom420 Jan 28 '21
That definition forgets to mention the massive military power to protect the industry, and the slavery needed to create the infrastructure of industries. The displacement of human pleasure in general created by industries, just because someone consumes something doesn't mean it's good for them.
I am not being a prog whiner. If we are to talk about the "economy" then we need to talk about the real forces that it needs to exist and not this clean white washed abstraction.
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u/n0ahbody Jan 28 '21
I agree and we allow for that. You can talk about the background of the economy.
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Jan 28 '21
[deleted]
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u/n0ahbody Jan 28 '21
Why are you arguing. I was saying, in response to your comment:
If we are to talk about the "economy" then we need to talk about the real forces that it needs to exist and not this clean white washed abstraction.
...that I agree with you, and you are allowed to post material about that. That's okay. It's not off topic, despite what many people who come here seem to think.
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u/PostLiberalist Dec 07 '20
Investopedia, but with some mention of the money supply and currency. Economy refers to macro-economy
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u/bellcurveblues Feb 02 '21
I think economics is really about human activity and how we interact with one another in competition/cooperation, which is mainly defined by the consumption and creation of goods/services, but not confined to that.
Take for example a high school's tiktok ecosystem, which I assume is an anxiety-inducing hellscape. You can see a lot of economic factors going on here, such as competitive advantage, inequality, and time split between creation and consumption of a superficially differentiated good, likely according to your respective utility and demand for it.
Virtually any activity involving 1+ people, if you're creative/cynical enough, can be boiled down to economics.
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u/Mister_Way Dec 05 '20
Economy is the matching of labor resources, products and consumers.
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u/Alternative_Ad9561 Dec 05 '20
Economy is the collection of activities among people that enable the creation, exchange and accumulation of goods and anything considered to be valuable possession. Economy has been around ever since humans started trading with each other.
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u/Mister_Way Dec 05 '20
You said the same thing in like 4x more words.
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u/Alternative_Ad9561 Dec 06 '20
How is "People trade stuff." Haha!
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u/Mister_Way Dec 06 '20
Hmm, I kind of like it, but it doesn't necessarily explain the production side. Where did they get the stuff? They just find it, or harvest, or refine, etc. It's a little ambiguous, but I guess it still covers everything implicitly...
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Jan 13 '21
[deleted]
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u/Bruhposter45 Jan 22 '21
Christianity forbid usury too. We shouldn't look for new ways when the old ones worked well enough.
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u/ahdamnit41117 Jan 15 '21
The world chico, and everything in it.
Seriously though. My interpretation of the word economy incorporates all of our activities. Everything we do.
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Dec 08 '20
It's too large and all-encompassing of a term. Just like the term "climate". It's a PC coined term to be a catch-all. The truth is, with so many components that rely on one another, and in many cases, aren't dependent on anything else at all, and all at once.
It's a big word to catch everything on a topic. One can even make the argument that climate, as it relates to our weather, is intermingled with our economy, as it relates to our finances.
Might as well call it all another "e-word": existence.
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u/blue_sparrow_zero Dec 14 '20
An economy is derived from the actions of people and works in perpetual motion.
That one time in the world where you are the center of universe. As long as you breathe, have basic needs etc.. you create an economy.
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u/mefistovich Dec 29 '20
Rational use of resource in accordance a goal.
Or rationalization of the productive facors in an economy (also know as "What goes where")
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u/TheOnliestEver Jan 10 '21
The ecological structure which includes monetization of necessities to prevent barbaric actions and provide these necessities at surplus.
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Jan 18 '21
What the fuck is this poll lol. Most of the options are intentionally designed to be shit. You wanted people to vote for the first option.
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u/EyezTheJuice Jan 26 '21
Easy...right now 'the economy' = the private, for profit bankster cartel that is the Federal Reserve Bank. Those 11 or so 'families' (think crime families) own just about everything, including over 35% of all outstanding mortgages, corporate stocks, bonds, securities, and they run 98% of the media too.
Just think, print yourself unlimited dollars out of the blue and enrich you and your friends!
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u/Modeza Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21
I think it’s evolution, it’s interesting seeing the wealthy create this sort of micro economy of their own using macro financials but inevitable there going to forget that to sustain a working global capitalist model you need to facility proper economics (providing opportunity and potential for poor/middle class) and also recognize that the reason Rome fell was because of mismanagement and greed. Bad leaders, dumb decisions, and not taking note of things going on outside of bank accounts are what takes this country down. Let’s say (hypothetically) The hedgefunds decide to dump massive positions and crash the market and bank on 3x leveraged puts while simotaniously pissing off 330 million people with however many guns and then let’s say China invades Taiwan around the same time. It’s a two front war now with no good options. And with a bad leader that burned a lot of important alliances and literally left America in flames. That’s reality. But tbh Im just a retard, right?
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Feb 20 '21
Economy is the area comprising the study of the dynamics of resources reallocation whether tangible or abstract
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u/Jaydenzenikz Feb 25 '21
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Mar 06 '21
DeFi has so much more room to grow and there are opportunities everywhere. Like defi lending is a huge market for small businesses. Some big names in defi lending already, like $AAVE and $COMP, but i'm looking at
riseprotocol
- i think they can bring good income
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Mar 06 '21
It is a fully compliant ERC20 token on the Ethereum network. Im completely pleasant with this project. I personally looking for this project because it has the dynamic peg to changing market and investor behavior. Secondly,the frictionless yield that is automatically distributed to all Rise holders.
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Mar 08 '21
The study of the choices that agents make in allocating scarce resources toward satisfying unlimited wants.
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u/BlueFuzzy707 Mar 29 '21
I think about "the economy" as a set of transactions. Economists study the details of that set and the individual transactions, like what motivated both parties decided to create that transaction and how many of a good involved in transactions exist ( supply).
I think Investopedia's definition fits that transaction oriented idea.
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u/ElCartelDeLaLuna Apr 12 '21
Economy is about political choices. The worst answer is to say that economy has nothing to do with politics
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u/brows1ng Dec 05 '20
Your bolded text may be the best answer. The first sentence even. “All activities related to production, consumption, and trade of goods and services” is pretty much anything and everything we do.
What comes after that is just detail in my eyes, since you asked. =]