| Term | Definition |
| need | something like air, food, or shelter that is necessary for survival |
| want | an item that we desire but that is not essential to survival |
| economics | study of how people see to satisfy their needs and wants by making choices |
| goods | physical objects such as clothes or shoes |
| scarcity | limited quantities of resources to meet unlimited wants |
| land | natural resources that are used to make goods and services |
| labor | the effort that people devote to a task for which they are paid |
| capital | any human-made resource that is used to create other goods and services |
| trade-off | an alternative that we sacrifice when we make a decision |
| opportunity cost | most desireable alternative given up as the result of a decision |
| thinking at the margin | deciding whether to do or use one additional unit of some resource |
| production possibilities curve | graph that shows alternative ways to use an economy's resources |