What is Economics? - 2

   In the previous article “What is Economics? - 1” we have known economics as a discipline of social science focuses on “choices”, and the present article we will talk about the nature of choices.

   前面「What is Economics? - 1」中我們已經知道經濟學為一門聚焦於「選擇」的社會科學，而本文就要來談談選擇的本質。

   We have limited resources and face the circumstance of scarcity when we are unable to satisfy all our wants and desires. People produce goods and services to meet the wants and desires. Now here comes the first question: How these goods and services are produced? To answer this question, we name the productive resources as “factors of production”. Factors of production can be categorised into 4 groups: land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship, as described in the following paragraph:

   我們擁有的資源有限，且當我們無法滿足需求與欲望時，就會面臨匱乏的情形。人們生產商品與服務以滿足需求與欲望。而此處第一個問題來了：這些商品與服務是怎麼生產出來的呢？為了回答此問題，我們把用於生產的資源稱作「生產要素」。生產要素可歸為4類：土地、勞力、資本、與企業體，如下所述：

   Land indicates the natural resources in a broad sense, such as water, metal ores, and oils. Labours are the work time and effort that people contribute to producing goods and services. The quality of labours depends on human capital, which is the knowledge and skill labours acquire from their education background and past work experiences. Capital means the tangible stuffs like buildings, machines, and instruments that business applied to produce goods and services. Entrepreneurship includes the human resources that manage and organise the other 3 factors of productions mentioned above.

   土地廣義上泛稱一切天然資源，像是水、礦產、與石油。勞力是生產商品與服務時所投注的工時及心力。勞力的素質取決於人力資本，這是指從教育背景與過去工作經驗中所得到的知識與技能。資本是有形的物體，像是企業用於生產商品與服務的建物、機器、與設備。企業體則包括管理與統籌上述三項生產要素時的人力資源。