The Meaning of Economics (Origin)

A world in which no one has to work, in which all time is leisure time, in which
scarcity is unknown and nature freely gives to man all the goods and service that he would
like to have is a beautiful dreamworld. But it is not the world in which we live.

Man has to work for a living. Nature supplies him with various resources with which
he can work : soil, minerals, water, air, sunlight, wild animals, and plants. But man must use
a part of his time to convert these resources into things that can satisfy his desires. He must
have food, clothing, living quarters, house furnishings, medicine, and many other things that
can make life more enjoyable.

However, although we sacrifice our leisure, we still do not produce enough to satisfy
all our wants. Millions of people have not enough food, clothing, and shelter. They are in bad
health and are always suffering from hunger. Other millions have just enough to maintain
their health and strength. Even those people who have a very high standard of living have
many unsatisfied desires : they want more leisure, better clothes, bigger house, more cars,
more travel, more books, more music, more plays, and many other things. In short, we live in
a world of scarcity.

It is not only in our present society however, that there is scarcity : scarcity has
always existed, and there is no reason to believe that it will disappear in the future. The
productivity of economic systems is increasing more and more, but people’s desires will
probably rise still faster, so that scarcity will persist.

Scarcity and Economics (Summary)

A world in which goods and service are freely provide is a dreamworld. Human not
live in such a world. People has to work for living. Nature supplies them with various
resources with which they can work. Part of their time is use for convert that resources into
many things that can satisfy their desires and make life more enjoyable. However, they still
do not produce enough to satisfy all their wants. Millions of people are in bad health and
always suffering from hunger. In other side, there are people who have a high standard of
living but have many unsatisfied desires. In short, they live in a world of scarcity. Scarcity
has always existed, and there is no reason to believe that it will disappear in the future.
Because, people's desires will increase faster than the productivity of economic systems.