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Scarcity | Basic economics concepts | Economics | Khan Academy - YouTube
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the entire field of economics is based
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on the idea of scarcity and arguably we
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wouldn't even need a field of economics
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if there wasn't the notion of scarcity
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in the world so what does scarcity mean
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well think about it what does it mean in
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everyday life it means that there's not
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enough of something to go around for
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talking about scarce goods scarce
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services scarce resources we're talking
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about things where if there was no cost
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associated with them people would use
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far more of that than there actually is
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around and in this video we're going to
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think about different types of goods and
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services or just resources and think
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about whether they are scarce or not
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so a related idea to scarce resources is
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it's opposite which is the notion of a
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free resource so this is something that
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you could argue is infinitely abundant
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or at least in a certain context is so
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abundant that it feels like people can
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have as much of it as they want the more
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that one person has of it it doesn't
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take away from someone else and the
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reason why scarcity is essential to
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economics is because economics is the
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study of how do you allocate these
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scarce resources if there's more demand
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for it than the amount of thing that
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there is well who gets it how much of it
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do they get and what do they have to
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give up in exchange to get those scarce
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resources but for the sake of this video
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let's just first make sure we understand
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and have a good idea of what resources
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are scarce and which ones aren't and why
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so this is a picture of caviar which is
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essentially fish eggs and it's not easy
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to get the fish eggs are deep in the
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water someone has to get to them and
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then they have to package it in some way
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and they have to get it to your plate
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and so do you think that caviar is a
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scarce resource or a free resource
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well if it was a free resource that
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means that we're just swimming in caviar
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that it's so abundant that i could just
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have as much caviar as i want and
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there's still as much as you want and
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that everyone gets as much caviar as
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they like well that's clearly not the
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case caviar is a scarce resource in fact
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it is a quite scarce resource and
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because of that if you want it you have
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to give up a good bit to get it
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this is a picture of some people working
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in a factory and the resource that jumps
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out here is that of labor and labor is
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interesting because because it's not as
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tangible as something like caviar but it
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is a resource and one could even argue
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the the caviar on your plate some of its
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scarcity comes from the labor involved
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of getting it to your plate but here
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these are clearly it looks like these
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are gentlemen who are putting together
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some type of fabric and so would you
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consider labor
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would you consider that a scarce
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resource or a free resource
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what would be a free resource if people
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were willing to just do as much work for
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other people actually willing to do an
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infinite amount of work for other people
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which isn't even humanly possible and
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even if it was humanly possible people
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aren't willing to do that they want
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something in return and so once again it
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is a scarce resource
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there's many resources that are pictured
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right here you have this beautiful town
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next to this alpine lake
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and so some clear scarce resources are
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here many people would love to have a
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view like you would get from this house
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or hotel right over here but not
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everyone and many people would love to
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live there because of the view but not
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everyone can live there so that is a
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scarce resource the water here is an
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interesting one i could imagine in
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earlier times if before there was a town
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here if there was just a primitive
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village living next to this fresh water
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they would probably view it as a free
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resource if people if someone was
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thirsty they would just go up to the
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lake and they would just drink from the
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lake they would not have to give up
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anything to drink from that
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but now the town it might be a little
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bit more of a scarce resource they might
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want to preserve it for various reasons
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in order to get the water to your sink
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in your house there might be some
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services or goods or labor involved
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someone has to set up the pipes maybe it
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has to be cleaned in some way well then
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it might become a little bit more of a
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scarce resource
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air for most of human history has been
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considered a free resource and even
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today i'd argue that something like
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oxygen at least on our planet is
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considered a free resource when i take a
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deep breath
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it does not affect your ability to take
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a deep breath it does not take oxygen
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away from you now is there an infinite
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amount of oxygen in our atmosphere no
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but for our purposes it feels like
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there's an infinite amount now if the
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photosynthetic plants were to disappear
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and all of a sudden the oxygen started
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to get diminished or if we were in a
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space station where there isn't a
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seemingly infinite amount of oxygen well
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then you could imagine a world where it
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could become a scarce resource you could
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imagine a colony on the moon or on mars
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or in the space station where it had
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some type of economic system to decide
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who gets how much oxygen so i will leave
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you there as already mentioned scarcity
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is the central idea in all of economics
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it's the reason why we even need a field
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called economics and as you go forward
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in your study of both micro and macro
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economics we'll be looking at ways to
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allocate these scarce resources we'll
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try to study what people have to give up
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in order to have access to these
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resources and we will have models that
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will help us understand what are the
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implications for these different methods
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of allocating resources
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