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Limited Wants – Unlimited Means

    Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Limited Wants – Unlimited Means.’ International Journal of Social Economics, 1999, vol.26, no. 5, pp. 832-833

    Western Economic Man lives in a world of scarcity because his/her wants are unlimited. However, scarcity is not a natural state of affairs, it is socially constructed. The concept of Homo Oeconomicus does not adequately reflect the totality of economic experiences of mankind since humans lived as hunter-gatherers for about 99 % of our entire existence as a species. Hunter-gatherers typically represent Uneconomic Man whose wants are limited and who has, exactly for this reason, unlimited means to satisfy his/her wants.

    Limited Wants – Unlimited Means