2. Resources

We cannot have all the goods and services we want because there are not enough resources to go around to produce them. Resources are the things that go into the making of goods and services. They are natural resources, human resources and capital resources. Natural resources are the things provided by nature that go into making of goods and services. Steel rubber and gasoline are all made from resources provided by nature. Without them, there could be no automobiles. Economists must concern themselves with natural resources because no nation has unlimited supply of any of them. Even fresh air, which people used to think of as the one unlimited natural resource, is not always available in some of our nation’s cities.

Human resources are people who put everything together to make the goods and services upon which civilization depends. How much a nation can produce depends to a large extent upon the quality of its human resources/ A healthy, literate (able to read and write) society is likely to produce more, and therefore live better, that one that is sickly and lacking in education.

Capital resources are the machines, tools, and buildings used in the production of goods and services. As societies have advanced, their reliance upon machines, tools and buildings – which economists have named capital – has increased. Indeed, economists frequently describe the wealth of the country in terms of the capital it possesses.