Fairy-Tale Economics: Scarcity, Risk, Choice 1

The limited matrix of elements becomes an arena in which fundamental human tendencies play themselves out: rationality, habit, and impulse; self-interest, cooperation, and the sense of fairness; conformity and self-assertion.2 In any encounter of strategies there are winners and losers, better and worse outcomes among the players. Microeconomics is much more than its representative anecdote, and the grand sweep of the fairy tale across time, cultures, and media cannot be reduced to plot summaries.