People want economy and they will pay any price to get it.
How to say in English what you studied at university? Sometimes it is easy, as with medicina or pravo, and sometimes it is more difficult as with civil građevinarstvo. And while ekonomija seems simple, it is usually translated wrongly as economy, when it should be ekonomija. Economics is a scientific study (other examples include statistics, physics, mathematics), while economy describes a system or range of economic activity in a country (the Croatian economy), region (East European economies) or community. Economy in this sense is brojiv i.e. it has plural form, e.g. South American economies.
Another meaning of the word economy is closer to its early Greek meaning. The origin of the word can be traced back to the word oikonomos (‘one who manages a household’). Good household managers spend money wisely, and so the word oikonom, derived with time from oikonomos, came to mean thrift or the careful use of money. The word economy has retained this meaning to the present day. Many jokes are told, whether justified or not, at the expense of the Scots and their parsimony – they apparently love to make economies (save money). An organisation can make economies by laying off employees or cutting overheads, and economies in household spending can be made by reducing heating and electricity costs, or by using public transport instead of a car.
