RE: Scarcity (Part 4) - Labour, Capital, and Entrepreneurship

Thanks @paradigms.lost. Labour itself should not be considered a scarce resource. But labour could temporarily become scarce within particular industries. This should only be temporary scarcity as labour will respond to market forces by acquiring the necessary skills or the relevant skilled labour will migrate to the places where there are shortages. Government intervention could artificially create scarcity by restricting this mobility.

I have not discussed this, but time can be considered scarce. There are only so many things we can do in a day, a week, or a month. We need to choose how we spend our time. Do we spend more hours working to earn more money. This money can be used to enhance our time which is not spent working. Do we find alternative activities that require less money, hence less time required to earn money. Do we spend more time upgrading our skills to get higher paid jobs so that we can earn more money in less time so that we have more time to enjoy the money we have earned. There are plenty of possibilities.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

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paradigms.lost (33) 7 years ago

I'm still not sure that I'm following with regards to the optional scarcity of labor....

Are you saying:

Labor might be over-supplied within a particular market? (I would definitely agree with this, even though I would phrase it as a coordination problem.)
Labor might be over-supplied in general? (I have a hard time imagining how this could possibly be so, since this would imply that there exists no desire in the entire world that is failing to be satisfied by labor.)

I hope I don't come off as being too nit-picky or belligerent, but sometimes the devil is in the details. :)

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