5. Read the text and check your answers in the previous activity. WHAT IS ECONOMICS Let's face it: If there's one fundamental principle guiding life on earth , it's scarcity. There simply aren't enough beachfront houses luxury cars, and seats at the theater for everyone who wants one! And on a more serious note, there's not enough food, clothing, and medical care for everyone who needs it. The entire discipline of economics-and all economic activity-arises from a scarcity of goods and services in comparison to human wants and needs. If there is not enough of something for everyone who wants or needs it, society faces a serious problem: it has to make decision about some basic economic questions. Throughout history there have always been people who obtained what they wanted or needed by force*. The barbarians who sacked Rome practiced this form of "economic activity," and in modern times it is practiced by armed robbers But a society requires an orderly system producing and distributing the necessities and luxuries of life Such a system is essential to a stable society. Economics is the study of systems of production and distribution -which are called economies-and of their fundamentals, dynamics, and results __ by force cunou *orderly system ynopaoouennaa cucmema.