“The first lesson in economic theory is that we live in a world of scarcity. Scarcity is a situation whereby human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants. Human wants are assumed to be limitless, or at least they don’t frequently reveal their bounds. People always want more of something, be it: more cars, more food, more love, more happiness, more peace, more health care, more clean air or more charity. Our ability and resources to satisfy all those wants are indeed limited. There’s only a finite amount of: land, iron, workers and years in a lifetime.” – Dr. Walter E. Williams
“The first lesson in economic theory is that we live in a world of scarcity,” explains Dr. Walter E. Williams, an American economist, commentator, academic, and the former John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, “Scarcity is a situation whereby human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants.”
Economics is the study of how we use our limited resources (time, money, etc.) to achieve our goals. This definition refers to physical scarcity.
Americans always want more of something, be it: more cars, more food, more love, more happiness, more peace, more health care, more clean air or more charity. Our ability and resources to satisfy all those wants are indeed limited. There’s only a finite amount of: land, iron, workers and years in a lifetime.
Scarcity produces several economic problems: What’s to be produced, who’s going to get it, how’s it to be produced, and when is it to be produced?
There’s simply not enough resources to meet all the competing wants and uses. That means there’s conflict over limited resources and its uses. Basically, there are several methods of conflict resolution.
- Market mechanism — let the highest bidder be the one who owns and decides how the land will be used.
- Government fiat, where the government dictates who gets to use the land for what purpose.
- Gifts might be the way where an owner arbitrarily chooses a recipient.
- Violence has always been a way to resolve the question of who has the use rights to the coastline — essentially people get weapons and physically fight it out.
Many Americans would say, “Violence is no way to resolve conflict!” On the contrary, the decision of who had the right to use most of the Earth’s resources was settled through violence (wars). Who has the right to the income you earn has been partially settled through the threats of violence. In fact, violence is such an effective means of resolving conflict that most governments want a monopoly on its use.
The pertinent question that arise is what is the best method to resolve conflict issues surrounding the questions of what’s to be produced, how and when it’s produced, and who’s going to get it…is it the market mechanism, government fiat, gifts or violence, ask Dr. Williams.
Federal, state and local tax levies represent government claims on private property of American citizen, explains Dr. Williams. In other words, taxes represent the government’s legal confiscation and theft of the private property of American citizens.
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