Scarcity

Scarcity is the perceived or real lack of some necessary thing.

Scarcity is profitable when the ModeOfProduction externalizes costs - such as in bare Capitalism.

Abundance is profitable when the ModeOfProduction internalizes costs - such as with Copyleft licenses like the GPL or some CreativeCommons licenses.

In the context of the Transitioner we are particularly interested in scarcity because money as we currently know it is kept artificially scarce by central banks. They believe that, in part, that the value of money is set by it's scarcity. This is why "the fed" sets interest rates. To make money more scarce, interest rates are raised, which means that money is "expensive." To make it less scarce, rates are lowered. The decision to raise or lower rates is based on balancing inflation with growth. If money is too "cheap" i.e. plentiful, there will be inflation, so interest rates are raised to curb inflation. But if money is too scarce, that puts a damper on growth, because businesses can't afford to borrow money.

Some things to think about:

• Buddhists believe that the opposite of scarcity is not abundance? rather it is generosity. The gap that needs to be bridged between scarcity and generosity, is fear.

• What are the two emotions that are felt on Wall Street? Fear and Greed the responses to scarcity.

Discussion

I appreciate this notion of generosity as the opposite of scarcity...Generosity enters the realm of choice, abundance just is. We choose to be generous and so are the masters of our world. Generosity implies self governement, radical democracy based on choices, not on givens. Abundance implies a given. Understanding this nuance is vital to our success, as only an enlightened beginning can produce a sustainable longevity. Mary Anne Davis