Economic Choices: The Basics

Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment

This handout introduces core economic concepts within the Social Sciences learning area of Te Mātaiaho.

• Social Sciences / Ākona Pāpori: Students investigate how economic decisions are made and how they affect people and communities (Level 3–4). They explore how different economic systems distribute resources and create different social outcomes.
• Unit 4 — Ōhanga me te Tika: The unit asks students to examine economic systems through a justice lens — who decides, who benefits, and whose model counts as "rational".
• Cross-curricular link — Mathematics: Economic reasoning involves proportional thinking, budgeting, and interpreting data.

What Is Economics?

Most people think economics is about money. But economists define it more broadly: economics is the study of how people, families, and societies make choices when resources are scarce.

Scarcity means there is never enough of everything. You can't have all the time, money, land, and energy you want. So choices have to be made. Every choice involves a trade-off — gaining one thing means giving up another.

The thing you give up to get something else is called the opportunity cost.

Example: If a hapū has 10 hours of volunteer labour available, and they choose to spend it building a new whare, the opportunity cost is whatever else they could have done with those 10 hours — weeding the garden, running a workshop, or preparing for a tangi.

Your turn: Describe an economic choice you or your whānau has made recently. What was the trade-off? What was the opportunity cost?

The Four Basic Economic Questions

Every economic system — from a small whānau to a whole country — must answer four fundamental questions:

Different economic systems answer these questions differently. A free-market system uses prices and profit to answer them. A planned economy uses government decisions. Māori economic systems historically used kinship, reciprocity, and collective deliberation.

Apply the Four Questions: Three Scenarios

For each scenario below, apply the four economic questions. You don't need to answer all of them — focus on the two or three that seem most important in each context.

Connect to Iwi Economics: A Different Model

Mainstream Western economics is built on assumptions of individual rational self-interest — the idea that people always try to get the most benefit for themselves. This drives market competition, private ownership, and profit-seeking.

Māori economic models work on different assumptions:

• Collective ownership: Key resources (land, fisheries, forests) are owned by the hapū or iwi, not individuals. Individuals have rights of access and use, not ownership in the Western sense.
• Reciprocity (utu): Giving creates obligation. Generosity is not charity — it is an investment in the relationship. The gift will come back, sometimes immediately, sometimes across generations.
• Intergenerational thinking: Economic decisions are evaluated not just for current benefit but for their effect on those who come next. Resources are held in trust for descendants.
• Manaakitanga as economic obligation: Hospitality and care for others are not optional extras — they are built into how resources are used and distributed.

Discussion: Which economic model — individual self-interest or collective reciprocity — do you think produces better outcomes for a community? Why?

Aronga Mātauranga Māori

In te ao Māori, economic decisions are never purely transactional. The concept of utu — often translated as reciprocity or balance — shapes how resources flow. When you receive something, you are obligated to return something of equivalent or greater value. This is not debt in the Western sense; it is a relationship maintained through continuous exchange.

Manaakitanga — hospitality and care for others — functions as an economic principle. A rangatira who hosts guests generously, feeds the community, and supports those in need is not "wasting" resources. They are investing in mana — in the social trust and prestige that makes leadership legitimate.

Collective ownership contrasts sharply with the Western idea that property belongs to whoever bought it. In te ao Māori, whenua belongs to all those who trace whakapapa to it — including those not yet born. This is why the sale of land is so significant: it severs not just a present relationship but all future ones.

Reflection: How might adopting an utu framework change how a school, sports team, or community organisation manages its resources?