Course description

Economic Principles: Cooperation and Prosperity

This course has two main goals:

1. Equipping learners with the basic economic principles required for understanding a variety of economic issues; and

2. Showing how individuals cooperating in a market economy gives way to astonishing prosperity.

You have probably heard terms like scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, and profit and loss, but you may not know how they are all related or what they have to do with economics. Understanding these terms and other basic economic principles will change the way you view the world. This course is also designed as a first course in economics – if you intend to take more courses, this is a great place to start.

You’ll learn about the solution to the Diamond-Water Paradox and learn to spot and avoid the Broken Window Fallacy. You’ll see the beauty of the division of labor and see the consequences of government interventions in the economy with reference to price controls, regulations and more, and you’ll understand the importance of losses in the market economy. You’ll also grasp consumer sovereignty and you’ll come to admire the spontaneous order of the market economy, so in the end, you’ll see how freer economies have higher standards of living, longer lives, and less social unrest because people's needs are being met.