Suppose a thirsty person wants to quench his thirst and he sees a coconut tree. He will have to invest something (labor/efforts) to get the coconut from the tree to satisfy his thirst. The investment incorporates all the activities carried out, resources used, time consumed, risk taken etc to climb the tree to cut the coconut, to bring it down and to punch a hole or to crush the cocoon to get the water of the coconut. These all activities may be carried out through many ways and by various means involving different level of efforts as well as consumption of resources etc. If the person is slim, light weighted with active muscle, he will have to make less effort to climb the tree. But, if he is fatty, the climbing efforts will be more. It is nearly impossible for an obese person. Likewise, if the person uses stone to detach the green coconut from the tree, he will have to make more efforts then a person-using knife for the same. Wherever we come across a composite value in our day-to-day life the region of "investment" compels us to correlate various means and ways for selecting them in such a way that minimum/optimum resources/efforts are consumed in the process of "investment". This is true for today and has remained a fact since millions of years, and will prevail till life cycle goes on. This process of thinking is so primitive that it has become an instinctive heritage. This process is the source of the word- economics.



When any person has more then one option to satisfy his particular need, he has to select any one out of the available and known to him. The thinking process to arrive on one particular selection out of available options is influenced by many parameters. Human mind compares and correlates each option with other in permutation and combination method. The efficiency of the comparison process also depends upon the person's intelligential/intellectual power, past experience, capacity of reliable judgment, physical/mantle health and so many others. But instinctively he always tries to select the option that he finds best suited. The selected option is best one as per his understanding. However, it might be the wrong selection in view of another person who is in the same situation and evaluates for the selection out of the same options. He (the another person) might select different option to satisfy the same need. It is also true that a third person might visualize still more (additional) options on the basis of his wider experience and in-depth vision. Now the third person has more options available to select one. he may have faire chances to select a best one suited to him. This is true for every need to satisfy. The process of selection of best suitable option is the preface of "Economics". While as the same process of selection of the suitable option is deeply influenced by man's intelligential/heritage characteristics/nature/culture and so many other parameters, it is not immune from their influence and as a result economics seems to be bonded with psychology.

Harshad Dave


NB: These are my personal views. One may/may not agree with.