In this case, the coordination refers to how the three major problems faced by an economy are solved. The three major problems are as follows:

• What to produce,
• How to produce, and
• For whom to produce.

As anticipated, an individual wants more than available in terms of how much they are willing to work and this causes a problem of scarcity.

Here, the concept of scarcity has two elements that are wants and means of fulfilling those wants. Since wants are unpredictable and partially determined by the society, the two elements are interrelated. However, the degree of scarcity is constantly changing, depending on the available means of production and the development of new wants.

Thus, the author of the textbook focused on coordination rather than scarcity to emphasize the supplementary nature of scarcity to the overall concept of coordination. Economics is not merely about an individual’s wants or the means of fulfilling those wants; it is also about reconciling our wants with reality, where the reality consists of social customers, political realities, and decision-making mechanisms.