What Are the Causes of Scarcity?
Relative scarcity means that the total supply of natural resources can meet the total demand, but uneven distribution will cause local scarcity. [1] The main reasons for the relative scarcity of natural resources are human's irrational use, inappropriate management, excessive population growth, unsuitable economic-social structure, and lack of science and technology. [2]
Relatively scarce
Right!
- Chinese name
- Relatively scarce
- Definition
- The total supply of natural resources can meet the total demand
- Presenter
- Ricardo
- Corresponding words
- Absolutely scarce
- Relative scarcity means that the total supply of natural resources can meet the total demand, but uneven distribution will cause local scarcity. [1] The main reasons for the relative scarcity of natural resources are human's irrational use, inappropriate management, excessive population growth, unsuitable economic-social structure, and lack of science and technology. [2]
- The theory of relative scarcity was put forward by Ricardo, a classical British economist, who denied the absolute limit of the economic use of natural resources. For land resources, there is no absolute scarcity in terms of quantity of land resources with high fertility and it can only be relatively scarce. He emphasized that technological progress can use machines to save labor and increase unit labor output. [1]
- There is a distinction between absolute scarcity and relative scarcity. Absolute scarcity is related to the use of existing resources in the entire society, the use of productive capacity, the rationality of income distribution, and the operating mechanism of the entire economy. It can be measured by indicators such as per capita output levels. The relative scarcity is related to the unlimited growth of people's desire, which can be evaluated by indicators such as the degree of satisfaction that people feel subjectively. The key to solving the problem of absolute scarcity is to improve the development level of productive forces and the degree of material civilization. This thinking may lead to the overexploitation of social resources due to the lack of human vision. The key to solving the problem of relative scarcity is to reduce the speed of expansion of desire and improve the level of spiritual civilization. This thinking may lead to the healthy development of social ecology due to the enhancement of human self-restraint. [2]