To a midshipman considering a major in Economics

Economics is a social science concerned with the way people go about organizing the use of resources in order to provide for their existence. Economists study the behavior of consumers, business firms and financial institutions. They examine government policy and international economic relationships. Thus, economics covers a very broad spectrum of human activity from how wages are determined to the price of beef, from how much to spend on health, education, and welfare to how to obtain the greatest number of ships and planes from a given budget. 

It is concerned with efficiency, growth, population, pollution, inflation, recession, poverty, productivity, taxes, monopoly, unions, conglomerates, and competition. 

It studies capitalism, communism, and socialism. An academic program in Economics is NOT equivalent to an academic program in Business, although Economists are interested in a number of subjects taught in Business Schools, such as accounting and financial analysis.

Economists use the tools of mathematics and statistics more frequently than do other social scientists, but Economics is NOT a strictly quantitative discipline. The subject matter of Economics overlaps some of the subject matter of Political Science, History, Sociology, Psychology, and Operations Research, but Economists look at the world differently than the professionals in those disciplines.