Suppose that you are on a date with an economics major, and you want to impress them by talking about economics. Your date challenges you to state your knowledge of positive and normative questions.

The difference between positive and normative questions, is that positive questions have a correct answer, while normative questions have subjective answers. Positive questions ask about how something really is, e. g. what is the GDP per capita in the US? Normative questions ask about how things should be, e. g. Is the US GDP per capita large enough?