To know what economics is, we must first know what an economy is. Perhaps most of us think of an economy as a system for the production and distribution of the goods and services we use in everyday life. This is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. The Garden of Eden was a system for the production and distribution of goods and services, but it was not an economy, because everything was available in unlimited abundance. Without scarcity, there is no need economize - and therefore no economics. A distinguished British economist named Lionel Robbins gave the classic definition of economics:
Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.
Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics, pg 2
