Scarcity
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
←Older revision | Newer revision→
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
In economics, scarcity is the problem of infinite human needs and wants, in a world of finite resources. In other words, society does not have sufficient productive resources to fulfill those wants and needs. Alternatively, scarcity implies that not all of society's goals can be pursued at the same time; trade-offs are made of one good against others. In an influential 1932 essay, Lionel Robbins defined economics as "the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."
In biology, scarcity can refer to the uncommonness or rarity of certain species. Such species are often protected by local, national or international law in order to prevent extinction.
See also
- Abundance, its opposite
- Economic problem
- Economic shortage
- An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
- Value theory
- Post scarcity
- Rare species
