Once upon a time, a boy was dying of hunger.

And a miracle happened.

Two men came. One offered his food while the other quipped, “Food is scarce and you give it away freely?”

“I can’t bear to see the boy dying,” replied the first man.

“Well, I have my way to make this world a better place to live in,” said the second.

“How?”

“From your behaviors, I’ll develop theories!”

Since then, the activities of mankind have been under the scrutiny of a group of prestigious scholars called economists.

So, what do economists do in their studies that may earn them cash, diplomas and medals in the glorious and prestigious Nobel Prizes awarded by Sveriges Riksbank or Bank of Sweden--the central bank of Sweden--since 1969?

As the second recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics of the year 1970, Paul A. Samuelson and William D. Nordhaus are the two economists who published the most saleable text on economics. Their Economics has seen 18 editions since 1948. (The book was written solely by Samuelson up to the 12th edition of 1985. Nordhaus becomes the coauthor only from the 13th edition onward.)

According to these two American economists, “Economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among the different people.”2 In short, they believe SCARCITY is the root of all economic problems.

But how true is the belief that men are constantly deprived of resources?

Look at the society where Samuelson and Nordhaus live. If resources are scarce, why is American society plagued with obesity and congested traffic? If overweight is problematic and traffic congestion is undesirable, why should the two economists consider food and cars valuable commodities?

More alarmingly, America--one of the most powerful nations in this world--has a stockpile of nuclear weapons capable of blowing apart the only planet in the universe known to have living creatures studying economics. In this case, what suggestions do Samuelson and Nordhaus have for distributing “deadly explosive” missiles among citizens living in their own society?

I suppose Samuelson and Nordhaus are aware of the destructive power of nuclear weapons, which are intended only to destroy humanity. If they aren’t, they should have received the royalties for their Economics. In other words, they should know that their book has sold millions of copies and it is still selling--suggesting, for the time being, trees are unrelated to scarcity!

If, however, the key concern of Samuelson and Nordhaus is resources running out one day, then they should stop publishing.

Trees will be saved!

Unfortunately, the threat of nuclear bombs and deforestation are not the real concerns of economists. Scarcity is used as a prelude, and subsequently drowned in complicated and pompous theories.

In the first part of this book, hence, I will unveil the most important concepts underlying the study of ECONOMICS--one of the core business modules, so that you can “appreciate” fully the works of all economists--dead and living.

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