This book focuses on the macro factors behind underdevelopment. The author builds two macro foundations which lead to an understanding of the economic conditions a society must satisfy in order to exist, survive, and develop. Social subsistence is used as the entry point and fundamental principle, while both production and distribution survival conditions are formulated. Demography plays a large role in the analysis. Economic history and the history of economic thought are reinterpreted through the lens of macro foundations. The author posits the need for lesser-developed countries to achieve survival conditions as the fundamental basis for economic progress.