LessonsMaking Decisions
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
—John S. Morton and Mark C. Schug, Financial Fitness for Life: Bringing Home the Gold, p. 11
"What school should I go to?" is probably the most difficult question many students must face. How to choose the best one? Well, we can't answer that question for every student, but we can show you how to decide for yourself. Decision making is one of the things we study in economics. Economics not only tells us that we can never have everything we want, but also how to make the right choices based on that fact. This Flash presentation explains how that works. (You may need to install a Flash Player to view it.)
All of which brings us back to the question of how to choose the best school. For that, students can use the five‐step economic decision making model. What's that, you might ask? Well, it's simply a way of helping students to make better decisions by evaluating the alternatives against a list of things that are important to them. Different things are important to different people, so it should come as no surprise that you might not choose the same school as your friends do—maybe even your parents.
Here is what students can expect to accomplish by doing this decision making exercise.
- Describe how scarcity affects economic choices.
- Describe and discuss the five‐step decision making model.
- Use the decision making model and decision making grid to make economic choices.
Try This!
Do the exercises in the "Decision Making Unit." If you like, you can work with a partner on these exercises. Then, after completing an exercise, you will be able to compare your answers with your partner's. If you are still stumped, you can check your answers with the answer key. (You may need to install Acrobat Reader to view these materials.)