"Wants are usually treated as the fundamental data, the ultimate 
driving force in economic activity, and in a short-run view of 
problems this is scientifically legitimate. But in the long-run it is 
just as clear that wants are dependent variables, that they are 
largely caused and formed by economic activity. The case is somewhat 
like that of a river and its channel; for the time being the channel 
locates the river, but in the long run it is the other way."

Frank Knight, "The Limitations of Scientific Method in Economics" in 
R G Tugwen, ed., The Trend of Economics (1924).

Quoted in Geoffrey M Hodgson, Economics and Institutions, p. 20

Michael Nuwer