The Fundamental Problem

Alfred Endres () and Volker Radke ()
Additional contact information
Alfred Endres: University of Hagen
Volker Radke: State University Ravensburg

Chapter 2 in Economics for Environmental Studies, 2012, pp 9-16 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The satisfaction of human needs constitutes the primary goal acknowledged in mainstream economics. In order to explore the nature of human needs, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is discussed. Human needs are observed to be principally without constraint. A “good” is defined with regard to its ability to satisfy a human need. Within the set of goods, commodities are distinguished from services. A classification of goods according to the criteria of excludability from use and rivalry in use is presented. Production is identified as the most important approach to make goods available. The main problem that forms the point of departure of economic thinking is described as the tension between the boundlessness of human needs, on the one hand, and the limited availability of the means to satisfy those needs, on the other. This phenomenon is called “scarcity”.

Keywords: Human Need; Self-actualization Need; Subsidiary Set; Withdraw Money; Investment Goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sptchp:978-3-642-31193-2_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783642311932

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-31193-2_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Texts in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().