Economics and Emergent Order Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts from the lecture on language evolution, emergent order, mixed economies, government roles, and production possibility frontiers.

Emergent Order

An orderly system or outcome that develops from the bottom up through individual choices aggregating into a societal choice, without anyone being explicitly in charge.

Ruth

An obsolete English word meaning care, compassion, or sensitivity towards the needs of others, which failed to survive as an independent word even though ruthless survived.

Google

A word originally defining a very large number (a one followed by zeros) that evolved into a company's proper noun and eventually a common English verb meaning to search for something on the internet.

Immortals

The group appointed in France to exercise control over the French language by officially deciding which words were appropriate to use.

Mixed Economy

An economic system that contains elements of both individual decision-making (market-based) and leadership or government decision-making; every economy in the world is technically a mixed economy.

Medicare

A United States government program funded through taxation that provides healthcare for citizens aged 65 and older, making the U.S. government the largest buyer of healthcare in the country.

Protected State

The role of government to enforce rules protecting person, property, and promise (the three P's), establishing the necessary baseline trust for voluntary exchange.

Productive State

The role of government to step in and produce or tax/compensate providers for goods and services (like roads or national defense) that individual market actors may not supply adequately.

Predatory State

A government that becomes corrupt and extorts resources from the private sector, or allows private entities to use government regulatory power to restrict competition and extract benefits.

Production Possibility Frontier

A mathematical graph showing the maximum combinations of two goods an individual or society can produce given their scarce resources.

Inefficient Point

Any point located underneath the Production Possibility Frontier line, indicating that resources are being left idle or not used to their full capability.

Unattainable Point

Any point located outside the Production Possibility Frontier line that cannot be produced given the current level of resources.

Technological Progress

An advancement that pivots the Production Possibility Frontier outward on a specific axis, enabling higher production of a good using existing resources.

Opportunity Cost

The value of the alternative good or resource that must be sacrificed or given up when choosing to produce or gain something else.