Activity

How does the economy show up in your life?

Grab a piece of paper. Thinking about last week, write down 10 to 15 examples of instances that helped you to meet your needs and wants. The instances may be big or small. They could be instances that take hours (e.g,. visiting a friend or going for a picnic at a nearby lake) or instances that are over in a fleeting moment (e.g., eating a sandwich or picking up a book at the library).
For each one of these instances, write down:
1) what the need or want is and
2) who or what enabled you to meet that need or want
Now, either print or copy the diagram below and map your needs and wants onto the Embedded Economy diagram: were your needs and wants met by the market, the state, the commons, your household, or a combination of these?

Based on the examples of your needs and wants, how do the four spheres of economic activity (the market, the state, households and the commons) show up in your life?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these four spheres of the economy?
What might a healthy balance between these four spheres look like in a thriving economy?
Note how it is the interaction between these four spheres of activity that is most fascinating, rather than the study of them in isolation.