Some Initial

Assumptions
Anthropological Basis of Work
The Attainment of Well-Being
as the End of Economics
The Essence of Economic Activity
Money
Wealth, Poverty and Equality
Sources of Wealth
Consumption, Property and
Investment
Source: Yepes, Ricardo Stork (1996)
Fundamentos de Antropología.
Ediciones Universidad de Navarra,
S.A. (EUNSA). Capítulo 13. pp. 1351-
354
Anthropological

 Each person is composed of

body and spirit:
1. A person is more than a
genetic composition.
2. Economic life forms part
of culture. But culture is
not only economic life
2
Anthropological
 Without the satisfaction of
basic human needs, man
cannot live
1. Specific biological make-
up of each person is the
cause as to why these
needs have to be
addressed
3
Anthropological

2. Man’s corporal and

instinctive needs can be
satisfied in many different
ways
 Freedom is key in order to
achieve it in many different ways
 Man uses his intelligence in order
to satisfy these needs and instincts.
4
Anthropological
3. The person has more needs
than the recourse in order to
satisfy them
 Reason: initial biological
needs and the intellectual
faculties which enables
the person to propose to
oneself ends which are
not strictly organic
5
Anthropological
 The satisfaction of basic needs are
those needs which refer primarily to our
corporal condition.
– The resources which can be used to
satisfy these needs are scarce
– Search for means to satisfy them.
– Economics, precisely, deals with
applying the art and technique of
using scarce resources or means to
satisfy needs
– Basic needs: nutrition, clothing, living
or shelter 6
Anthropological

 Conclusion:
1. Economics is a peculiar
characteristic of being human.
The person’s reason and will is
manifested in how he is able to
satisfy needs
2. Economics is based on work.
How he makes use of scarce
resources to satisfy present and
future needs through technique. 7
 Anthropological
 From here, we see the context of the other
topics:
– Well-being as the motor of economics
– Technique of managing scarce resources
and the production of goods
– Achieved through the use of money:
exchange and store of wealth
– Nature of this scarcity
– Sources of wealth
– Economic activity related to consumption
– Centrality of work in developing economic
institutions such as the market and the firm 8
The Attainment of Well-
Being as the End of
Economics
 There is a natural inclination for
each person to seek something
which is strictly more than what is
indispensable in order to live. Each
individual has needs which goes
beyond what is merely organic.
 That which is more than organic is
what we call well-being.
9
The Attainment of Well-
Being as the End of
Economics
 One does not simply live, but has to be
living well through the development of
one’s spirit, his culture. Go beyond the
requisites of one’s minimum
subsistence: use of one’s reason.
 Explanation for luxury: go beyond
minimum subsistence.
 What is proper of economics, therefore,
is to respond to the impulse which
brings one to the humanization of the
material conditions of life. 10
The Essence of
Economic Activity
 Resources will always be scarce otherwise no
sense to study economics
 Central problem of economics in society is how
to reconcile the conflict between needs and
unlimited desires, and, the scarcity of resources
(land, labor and capital) necessary to produce
these needs. Have to apply the principle of
economics: Achievement of maximum utility at
the minimum cost. (Market or technical
efficiency).
 Scarcity is an initial and constant situation.
Deliberation and decision. Account for the
means.
11
The Essence of
Economic Activity
 Economics is therefore primarily
mathematical, not because it is rigorous
and exacting, but because it has to
account as to how far resources can be
used.
 Practical science-resolves problems
making an account of the use of scarce
resources
 Theoretical science-study of the
behavior of economic agents and the
results of such
12
The Essence of
Economic Activity
 True and primary economics is that
which looks at each person
privately as well as each one being
an economic agent. Many facets.
 Human work multiplies these scarce
resources. This makes production
the principal economic activity

13
The Essence of
Economic Activity
– Professional view of production
– All the dynamics of business activity is
based on work as a factor which
creates wealth and moves the
economy. Business is that particular
type of production activity which is
obtained from the spontaneous
harmony of distinct wills dictated by
reciprocation or mutual interest.
– Introduce a product: create it and put
in into the free market 14
The Essence of
Economic Activity
 Under this focus, economics becomes
a fountain of wealth based on human
creativity
– When a product is put into the free market,
one can have both dispositions of interest
and benevolence.
– They are complementary, not
contradictory
– Adam Smith’s intrinsic goodness of man
refers to the fact that man can give in a
benevolent manner while at the same
time taking care of his own proper interest.
15
The Essence of
Economic Activity
 What is natural in man is love-
giving oneself as well as
obtaining what is lacking, or
love-necessity. Love-necessity
is not acquiring what we lack,
at the cost of removing the
love-giving which is as natural
and necessary as the former.
16
Money

 Functions of Money: Exchange, Fixed

Unit of Account, Store of Value, Unit for
Deferred Payments
 An important means to achieve well-
being. Thus, it is only a means.
 When money is valued for its own sake, a
person falls into the error of valuing
things only from the point of view of
results
17
 Wealth, Poverty &
Equality
 Misery is not equal to poverty. Both refers to
the inability of a person to achieve not only
basic necessities but also those goods
proper of the spirit. Real misery happens
when life is valued only in terms of material
possessions and one does not have it
 It is possible to eradicate poverty but it may
be difficult to eradicate misery in a
consumerist society
 Best source of wealth is human creativity.
This is an economic fact. Human capital is
an accepted economic concept 18