W6.2 Economy

1. Summarization
    Economy is a social science that entitles the way people use their surroundings to get to their material needs. Throughout history, the manner of exchanging goods has changed from social relationships through the use of coins. Two widely used social systems are capitalism and socialism. Capitalism prioritizes the market, rather than the people surrounding the market, like socialism. The idea is to have as less restrictions as possible, as opposed to the interference of the government in modern socialism. Economists, a specialist in the field of economy, often use statistical tools to look at the state of an economy. There are various ways of determining. The GDP, gross domestic product, tells how much a country 'earns' annually. This is an indicator of a country's wealth. On the other hand, one indicator does not perceive everything. The GDP per capita tell how much a person in a country earns on average. Which already tells one something different to that of the GDP.

2. What was interesting/what did you learn?
    For this particular topic, I did not necessarily learn new things as this was mostly already known to me. However, it is interesting to look at economics from a more sociological point of view, rather than the commonly taught view. Such as what economics entitles, how certain things are the way they are throughout history till now. With the rise of concepts like contracts, stock exchange, valute etc.

3. Discussion points
    Something not necessarily discussed in the article, but relevant either way. Economics has changed throughout history to what we know it now. Moreover, how does it evolve in the future? Especially with the relatively new economical concept of cryptocurrency. With this, I don't mean to say that this is the future. But I think it does put in perspective how quickly things can change. As anything that can happen will happen, how do you predict the economy to change in the next one or two decades?

Jasper Toonen - 9 April 2023
Introduction to Information Sociology


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