I feel as if this first chapter highlighted concepts that I have always been aware of, but that I have never been able to fully explain or put into words. For example, the idea that a product will sell at the price that matches its demand is evident, but rarely do I think to put it into the frame of an actual concept. Like Wheelan states, economics can be boiled down to consumers trying to reap the best reward for themselves and firms trying to gain the most profit from this ambition. Each of the six bolded concepts that Wheelan laid forth are the effects of this basic defenition of Economics. Because I am a consumer (perhaps too avid of one) and will probably become a memeber of a firm in the future, these trends will and do affect me both directly and indirectly. For example, I take part in the self correcting market. This summer I relized that eating at restaurants, as nice as it can be, is outrageously expensive, so instead I began to buy more groceries for my family and began making more meals at home. I reacted directly to a price that I deemed not equal to its utility, and in turn the "restaurant market" had one less frequent customer. Now of course my decrease in spending at restaurants did not force the restaurant industry to re-adjust their prices, but if enough individuals began to the make the same choice restaurants would have to adjust their prices. On perhaps the most direct and daily basis, the market makes my life better. For example, the market provided me with the ability to access shampoo and body wash at my local Target; without this access my life would be less sanitary and in turn the quality of my life would decrease (one could argue that my lack of bad odor makes their life better as well). I would suggest that to some degree all of the "bolded concepts" that Wheelan illustrates affect everyone directly but at a varying degree depending on an invidual's economic position.
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