services we want but they exist in limited supply. Of course, the ultimate scarce resource is time- everyone,

rich or poor, has just 24 expendable hours in the day to earn income to acquire goods and services, for leisure

time, or for sleep. At any point in time, there is only a finite amount of resources available.

Think about it this way: In 2015 the labor force in the United States contained over 158 million workers,

according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total land area was 3,794,101 square miles. While these

are certainly large numbers, they are not infinite. Because these resources are limited, so are the numbers of

goods and services we produce with them. Combine this with the fact that human wants seem to be virtually

infinite, and you can see why scarcity is a problem.

Introduction to FRED

Data is very important in economics because it describes and measures the issues and problems that
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