Many of you have probably heard the term "economy" more than once, but how many of you truly know what it means? If I were to say "free market economy," "command economy," "traditional economy," or any other economic term, how many of you would be able to define it?

But the thing is, more of you know what they mean than you think. You're learning about it, now. Every second you're on Whyville is a second of economic knowledge gained. Why?

Whyville has its own kind of economy, which I will tell you about now. I'm going to compare it to the United States' economy, because that's where I live, and that's the economy I know most about.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? The United States has a free market economy, which means people can make, sell, and profit from what they want within the confines of ethics and law. For example, if I have a brand spankin' idea for some hot new product, I can legally get a patent for it, hire workers, show them how to make it, then sell it for money.

In a free market economy, competition benefits the consumer. How? If you're going out to buy some pencils for school, you will see nearly a whole aisle with different brands, prices, and qualities of pencils. Just the fact that you see that is benefit to you, it gives you choice. Furthermore, the makers of those pencils want you to buy their product, not the one next to it, so they try to improve their product and reduce the cost, giving you a brilliant pencil for little cash.

We have almost the same kind of economy in Whyville. If I think of a brand spankin' idea for a face part, I can go to Akbar's and make it, then sell it in the Face Mall for clams. If you're at Akbar's looking for some hair, there's probably four-thousand different ones you could buy. That's choice. Face part makers want you to buy theirs, so they improve the quality and lower the price. See the similarity?

Scarcity is something most of the world is currently familiar with. Take oil, for example. We don't have enough of it. Scarcity, by definition is limited product for unlimited wants. We have that in Whyville, too. Remember the boom where everyone wanted Meow Mix? The maker of Meow Mix, though, did not produce enough for everyone who wanted one to have one.

Meow Mix, in this scenario, was scarce, which inadvertently caused more competition in the trading post, which could easily be compared to scalping in the real world.

In the United States, we have a limited amount of money. The US treasury only prints enough money each month to account for the destroyed, or lost money, but never prints enough to give us more than we had before. In Whyville (as far as we know) clams are infinite. There's not a limit to how much you have. When you earn more, when you get your salary, you're not taking clams away from anyone else.

There are probably many more ways in which economy can relate to Whyville, but I think I explained enough of them for you to get the point.

Happy free market,
casc302