• The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices

• Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach

Introduction to Choice in a World of Scarcity

BRING IT HOME

Choices ... to What Degree?
Does your level of education impact earning? Let’s look at some data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In

2020, among full-time wage and salary workers, median weekly earnings for those with a master’s degree were

$1,545. Multiply this average by 52 weeks, and you get average annual earnings of $80,340. Compare that to the
28 2 • Choice in a World of Scarcity

median weekly earnings for full-time workers aged 25 and over with just a bachelor’s degree: $1,305 weekly and

$67,860 a year. What about those with no higher than a high school diploma in 2020? They earn an average of just

$781 weekly and $40,612 over 12 months. In other words, data from the BLS indicates that receiving a bachelor’s
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