Why everyone, whether poor or affluent, faces the problem of scarcity?
Concept Introduction:
Scarcity: In economics, it refers to the limited availability of a commodity which people desire in the market.
The problem of scarcity arises because the factors of production are limited, but the human wants are unlimited.
Explanation of Solution
Scarcity exists in every society and at all income levels because the human wants exceed the available resources.
Scarcity is a relative concept. For poor, scarcity would mean limited resources with which she could buy things. Resources are scarce to her because they are with others.
Scarcity for rich is the limitedness of the resources in the market. A rich person might have wealth and money but she cannot buy infinite amount of things she desires for. Those things, let’s say gold and silver, are also limited on earth.
The available resources are limited and have multiple uses with which whatever we can produce is not enough to satisfy the human wants.
Scarcity is the central problem of economy which gives birth to the problem of choice due to which the economy has to decide what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce.
Since people have unlimited desires and wants but the resources in the world are limited, that is the reason why scarcity is something that both poor and rich face.
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