When teaching economics and the concepts of supply and demand, students can often struggle to understand why demand, in many cases, continues to rise. The conversation surrounding happiness inspired by Diogenes offers a simple way to look at continued demand within a population. I would use Diogenes’s quote as an introduction to the lesson, asking students to think of examples that relate to this concept of increasing want or need. We would discuss topics like junk food and video games, and how having these things sometimes just makes you want more and more. Within this lesson we would also discuss the role that advertising has in affecting people’s desires.
Level: Elementary Social Studies
Subject Area: Economics
Author: Tiffany Heitman