Hello, my name is Kiley, and welcome to what is economics. Economics is the study of resources including money. Did I get your attention? Great. Keep watching to find out about the exciting study of economics. Are you ready? Let's go. If you were to read a dictionary definition of the word economics, it might have a rather long and complicated definition. Something like the science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, and with the various related problems of labor, finance, taxation etc. But really, economics is very important, and once you learn it has to do with resources and money, I bet it becomes a lot more exciting. For example, in our marketplace you are able to create items for sale in our virtual world. You are producing a virtual or digital product and earning a type of money, scoops or gold to spend. If you haven't already, I bet you'll want to start creating items for sale after watching this video. Before we talk about the money side of economics, we need to learn some basics first. The first thing to know is that economics deals with resources. There are three types of resources studied in economics. Natural resources, which are things that occur in nature, like wood from trees and coal from the earth. Human resources, which are the people who create and make items for others to use, especially like the people who make cakes at the bakery, and capital resources, which are tools and equipment that workers use to make things like a crane to build a tall building. You will learn more about the three types of resources in our video, three kinds of resources. The next important part of the study of economics is production. The word production means to produce or make things. These things can be tangible objects, or things you can see and touch. They can also be intangible, like a service, information, or energy. Our daily lives are filled with items that are tangible and a result of production. For example, a car is produced in a factory. An artist produces a painting for sale. A sales person makes a delicious ice cream sundae with our favorite toppings that we eat. These things are all things that we can touch, see, and in some cases taste. Mmm, ice cream. We also are surrounded by intangible production items. Have you ever asked a librarian a question? Her answer or information is an intangible item produced by a person. A store that I live by hired a security guard to watch over the store and prevent people from stealing things. Her watching over the store, a service, is an intangible item. Do you create items for the marketplace on our site? If you do, you are creating an intangible resource. The study of economics takes a look at how items are produced. Business owners want their businesses to have a high level of productivity. This means their products are being made as cheaply and quickly as possible. Bosses and managers watch over every part of their business to make sure that they are being as successful as possible. If you can create a very eye-catching couch in our marketplace in a short amount of time and you're able to sell them to a lot of other users, you are being very productive. And finally, money. Yes, money is a very important part of economics in the modern world. However, money hasn't always existed. Yes, that's right, a world with no money. How can this be? Well, before money was invented and became common, people bartered and traded for resources. A farmer may have traded some of his crop and animals to a newspaper man to pay for a yearly subscription. Today, however, we mostly use money to buy the things we want. Money can be tangible like dollar bills and coins, or intangible like using a debit card, or in the case of our marketplace, scoops or gold. Now people earn money by working. Then the money they earn can be spent on whatever they choose. They spend money on goods and services that can come from anywhere in the world. Economics also is the study of how, where, when, and why we spend our money. Studying how economics works helps us to learn and be good consumers, or the people who buy and use resources. It also helps us if we want to own a business and make money. So now that we've learned the basics of economics. Let's come up with an easier to understand definition. Economics is the study of resources. The kind of resources they are, how they are produced, and how they are used. Economics also studies how money is used in buying resources. Remember, this is just an overview of the study of economics. I bet you are now thinking about how you earn and spend your scoops or gold. You can learn more about economics and money by watching our videos and playing our fun online games and quizzes. Good luck earning, and remember to always be clever.