The simple choices you make everyday

- Blink number one. The economy has a huge impact on the simple choices you make every day. Sipping your morning cappuccino, do you ever stop to think how that cappuccino got there? Probably not. And yet perhaps you should, as it reveals crucial insights about our economy and thus our lives. Even something as simple as a cappuccino is the result of the economy's ability to bring many professions together. Imagine trying to make that cappuccino all by yourself. Where would you even begin? You need to first grow the coffee beans, harvest, dry and blend them. You'd also need to raise a cow, gather its milk, and then fashion your coffee mug out of clay. Finally, in a spark of engineering genius, you'd have to build an espresso machine. Could you tackle all this by yourself? Not likely. You rely on an entire economic system, especially the division of labor across the world to produce your favorite morning beverage. Maybe you decide to buy your morning coffee instead, even the price that you pay is tied to an entire economic system. Generally, the more scarce resource is the more it will cost, but this isn't always true. For example, you might think that if every coffee shop uses the same resource, then every cup of coffee would be priced the same, but they aren't. In the UK, a chain of train station coffee houses called ATM has far higher prices than its competitors. Is it because they sell a rare kind of coffee? No. ATM can charge high prices because the space they occupy, railway stations, is extremely scarce. Lots of people pass by during their morning commute. And there is consequently a high demand for ATM space. Without competitors who occupied the same space, this demand for coffee pushes the price up. It is the intersection of convenience for customers and the high rent that makes ATM's coffee more expensive. It is these sorts of insights that allow you to think like an economist and thus better understand the world around you.