Economics is not all true. I’m sure you’re wondering how I can state that economics is not all true. The fundamental concept of economics is a relationship between ends and scarce means. The paradigm of limited resources and a finite amount of resources that all of us need to struggle for is definitely not correct. If you study resources over time, you will realise that what man has discovered a lot of resources and if all the resources in the earth were shared equally then everybody would be a millionaire in dollars. Why then are we to take a concept that defines our world as driven by scarcity as completely true?
Now many of us learnt in high school many things about economics that we take as the gospel truth, as far as economics is, this is what defines the economics of the world, this is how the world operates. Well, I want to burst the economics bubble, it’s not all true!
I want to break a few things in this particular paradigm and a few things that have been defined to us from high school. I want to shift us a little bit in some of them so that we can appreciate what exactly is the paradigm we should have. While we were in our higher school education, we were told that economics is a science which studies human relation as it relates to ends and scare means, which have alternate uses. If you went to school within the last 40 years, either in Nigeria or overseas the curriculum agrees with this definition of economics. Economics is the science that studies human behaviour as a relationship between end and scares means that have alternatives uses. What defines what we call economics is how human beings behave between ends and scares means. This is what we learnt in school, the behaviour being studied is what happens when there are desired ends and there is the pressure of scarcity. Scarcity is the paradigm that creates demand and supply intrigues and pricing strategies.
This paradigm of scarcity is the paradigm you need to shift, because for as long as your mindset and economic worldview and paradigm is shaped and determined by scarcity, you will not be able to exist in an innovative or creative space. You will find yourself consistently struggling in competition with others, fighting with others, looking for how you can make something happen for yourself in spite of others. You will assume the paradigm that was transferred culturally that says if somebody’s own does not get destroyed, another person’s cannot get better. You will find yourself limited to the concept of scarcity for as long as you believe that economics defines how human beings behave once you have objectives to satisfy and the means that you require is scarce.
I want to shift that paradigm a bit by asserting that economics is true to an extent but is not all true. While some resources are limited and scarce the resources that we use change and so really there isn’t such a scarcity. For example there was a particular element called saltpetre which is a combination of potassium and a few elements that is used in fertiliser it is not important to us today for example as oil is incredibly important to us, but the reality is that, 200 years ago saltpetre was more important to us than oil. The advancement in technology and the fact that it changes what we place priority on redefines the concept of scarcity totally. The centrepiece that coal took in the midst of the years as an energy resource is not what it is taking today because technology has advanced and human beings have found alternative means.
Reality is scarcity is a mental paradigm that creates undue pressure and competition. The reality is technology forces us into a plane of innovation where what was a resource that we feared was going into scarcity becomes a resource that is no longer in use and man is able to with his creative dimensions tap into beyond what currently exists to find things that he can have use of even more efficiently, the reality is that supply is virtually unlimited and demand is something you create in all cases except as relates with survival. This makes it actually a fact, that there is unlimited wealth available provided we continue to expand our thinking and our production efficiency. This means once you take yourself away from the plane of competition and scarcity there is a zone for innovation and creativity where the only gateway or access that you will need to enter that frame of thinking is understanding that there is unlimited wealth available and there’s no scarcity.
Scarcity forces you to compete, when in reality is there is abundance. God has created for us not a world of scarcity that we must fight over but one of abundance where there is enough and to spare. Somebody made an analysis sometime ago, if you have read the book science of getting rich you might understand a little bit of what I’m talking about. It says if you look at all the resources available on earth if you sum together the available deposits of steel, sum together the available deposits of oil, sum together the trees and the timber therewith, sum together titanium, lead aluminium, everything underneath the earth and above the earth that is already discovered by man, not that which will be discovered in the future if you sum them all together and you share it by every mortal alive you will realise that every human being has the capacity to be a multimillionaire in dollars. What that says to me is that there is sufficient resource available on earth, if we will challenge our own creativity and tap into what is already available in the universe there is enough for all. I do not need to deprive some other person in other to have more. I can have and you can have as well.
The earth is created full of abundance, interestingly there is something in between the ears of man – the mind, that has the capacity to create when the physical resource finishes. There is capacity with technology to begin to expand and create new possibilities such that what is in demand in a particular clime becomes different from what is demanded in another clime. You need to understand that the earth is full of abundance and one of the key paradigms you need to shift to become financially free is to understand that there is opportunity available for all and you do not need to deprive another or cheat another before I can make that which I desire.
Scarcity creates competition and rivalry, abundance inspires innovation and production efficiency, the concept of wealth creation that is sustainable on a long term will align with fundamental maturity principles of seeking win-win and if one will be sustainably wealthy, then one must do it without depriving others. One needs to understand fundamentally that win-win is possible and there is a mentality called an abundance mentality and that there can be no win-win without an abundance mentality. So get this very clearly, the economics that teaches us that the behaviour that is being studied is between ends, objectives and scares means, needs to be broken away from. We need to break away from that particular thinking and find out ways to ensure that we have a mentality of abundance.
The paradigm we need to shift today is that there is ABUNDANCE. Pay attention, it might sound like it’s simple, it might sound like you know this already but please focus on this, and begin to free your mind to see that opportunity is not mutually exclusive and that you and your brother can succeed together.
There is only a finite sum available, it’s a zero sum game – that is the mentality available in the current market place, people feel once they have a shop here and are selling oranges the next person who is selling oranges beside them becomes their competition, their own prosperity is derived from depriving them. You need to break away from that limiting mindset and say there is indeed abundance available. In my environment, I can have and my neighbour can have as well, we only need to find a way to work together in a win-win arrangement that will deliver satisfaction for both of us. This is very fundamental because if you don’t get this paradigm right you will go to market with a mindset of competition, you will go there with scarcity, you will want to force your way and negotiate, bargain, cheat your way and ride other people because you want to make a headway. You need to be clear about this, it’s not about scarcity, we live in a world that is filled with abundance, there is abundance out there it is available to all it is abundant.
Economics is not all true, the concept that is not all true here is the concept of scarcity, there’s abundance, there’s sufficient to go round. Everybody can have without depriving another person, there’s always a collaborative win-win way to work things out and once I get to win–win we can go from win-win to higher levels of communication of seeking first to understand and maybe understood to empathising and then we can move to synergy, where together we can achieve much more than we can achieve as single individuals.
