Q.What do you mean by the 'scarcity' definition of economics? Why is it considered superior to the wealth definition?

Robbins' definition marked a turning point in how economists thought about their own subject.

Lionel Robbins' scarcity definition states that 'economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.' Human wants are treated as unlimited, but the means to satisfy them — time, money, natural resources, labour — are limited in supply and can be used for more than one purpose, forcing a choice about which wants to satisfy and which to leave unmet. This definition is considered superior to Adam Smith's wealth definition for several reasons. First, it is universal: scarcity relative to wants is a condition faced by every economic agent, whether a wealthy business or a poor household, in a capitalist economy or a planned one — unlike the wealth definition, which fits a growing, trading nation but says little about a subsistence economy. Second, it avoids moralising about wealth: Smith's definition had been criticised as reducing economics to a 'science of getting rich,' whereas Robbins' definition is about the logical structure of choice itself, with no implied judgment about whether accumulating wealth is good or bad. Third, it widens the sco …