我的第一本经济学启蒙书

说来很巧，我第一本经济学通识书是阴差阳错得来的。是买电子版时，卖家发错了，干脆就送给我了。书名叫《a little history of economics》,后来我才知道它的中文名叫《经济学通识课》。

读这本书的，我已经大致有了相关认知的框架，信奉市场，喜欢米塞斯、哈耶克之类的经济学家，所以在开始看经济学之类的书时，是有方向的，无非是为了在骨架上添肉，也许会越来越狭隘。

这本书算是中立的，是一部经济发展史的流水账。从希腊开始讲起一直讲到现代，无论哪种经济学派都简单介绍了一番。在读这本书的时候我的英文阅读水平还很有限，但由于它算通识类书籍，语法简单，通俗易懂，我很快地就读完了，以至于信心爆棚，从此走上了只读英文经济著作的道路。

在这本书里我学到了几个特别关键的单词，或者说是概念。

1、scarce 稀缺

To economists,diamonds and white peacocks are the same as pens and books,they are all scarce. By scarcity they mean that there's a limited amount, and people's desires are potentially unlimited. Everything has a cost, we have to make choices to get anyone of them.

2、opportunity cost 机会成本

The cost of the subject that we choice is not just pounds or dollars, is about the cost of the subject that we give up.

3、margin utility 边际效应

‘Margin’ means the edge of something, so the ‘edge’ of your utility from pleasure the utility of the very last one you got.

The tendency of marginal utility to go down as you consume more is known as the ‘principle of diminishing marginal utility’.

这三个概念在经济文章无处不在。