First Lessons of Economics and Politics

Ironic, I interpret this differently from what it was probably intended. The presupposition of economics is that reality reduces exclusively to the material. Economics can only deal with what can be quantified and measured. What is spiritual cannot be quantified or measured.

Politics--in its premodern sense--deals with the relationships and organization of human beings. Christians (and premoderns like Plato and Aristotle) believe human beings are both material and spiritual beings. Thus, for premoderns, politics cannot be reduced to economics: it must also address and defend those aspects of human life which CANNOT be quantified or measured.

SO, If the first lesson of economics is indeed "scarcity," the first lesson of politics is to educate people that "scarcity" is not the fullest description of reality.