Why can't scarcity be eliminated from economics?

Answer 1

Nobody has unlimited wants: nobody wants infinite amounts of potatoes or light bulbs or toilet paper, for instance. It is perfectly possible to produce enough for everyone’s needs, so no-one need be hungry or homeless.

Answer 2

Scarcity cannot be eliminated because nothing is infinite except for space itself. There is no infinite supply of anything in our world so there will always be scarcity. So long as everything is limited, there will be scarcity.

Answer 3

Let us take the extreme case, Jacques Fresco's notion of a resource based economy where scarcity does not exist. He believes that if you eliminate scarcity that the tragedy of human poverty and war could be eliminated. For this basic society, you must provide: food/water, clothing, shelter, education, entertainment, exercise, adequate healthcare etc. So, let us pretend that this society does exist, and I will try to explain to you three forms of scarcity that must persist via examples.

This society must be a living organism that constantly improves its own existence (the human condition dictates that we will constantly strive to better our own existence). Pretend that plastics, metals for electronics and other commonly known goods for this society are not currently scarce. As technology expands, the demands for those goods may begin to conflict among competing needs (the needs to create more shelter to deal with rising population may conflict with the need to create a more efficient transportation system or more efficient hydroponic facilities to increase food output. Which projects get to go forward? This example illustrates the eventual scarcity of non-renewable resources.

Not all scarcity is permanent. Consider food; if you provide me fish and rice plentifully, I may develop a taste for beef-steaks and broccoli. Thus, my evolving tastes shift the demand for those items that may be of significantly lesser production. Even if the production can be altered, there will be scarcity until the system reaches equilibrium. Modern economic theory (consider the Cobweb model of dynamic equilibrium) states that price simply cannot be fixed because at approach to dynamic equilibria, there will be periods that experience both a shortage of supply, and some with shortage of demand. Any attempt to make all things plentiful (non-scarce) MUST fail or at least create waste. But, this is true for all things above, food was a simple example of temporary scarcity of renewable of common goods. Let us move to one that is far more dangerous (I won't die from not eating steak...though I may harm someone ;p).

Consider a functioning resource based society. A brilliant medical doctor comes up with a procedural cure that takes 6 hours for the disease that you have (and will kill you and all others that are afflicted with the disease in 6 months), but it requires a highly skilled procedure and a full understanding of his/her years of research. At this time, only .001 percent of society suffers from this affliction. Assuming population levels are 6 billion people, that doctor would have to treat 60,000 people within that six month period to keep everyone alive. Who determines which people get the treatment and which ones die. Surely, that doctor can instead teach other doctors, but if it takes a week to learn all of the information (assuming efficient mechanisms of conveyance) then there would still need to be at least 175 doctors throughout society who ARE NOT OTHERWISE ENGAGED, that can learn the material for a week, then perform the procedure on two people a day until the outbreak is cured. The reason I emphasize "not otherwise engaged" is because this affliction only affects .001% of the population. In this example, I have illustrated the permanent scarcity of time, and human capital (expertise).

Source: Ph.D. candidate in Finance

Answer 4

No matter how much is produced, people will always want more.