Scarcity In Canada: Meaning Of (Mini-Essay)

The meaning behind the term "scarcity" is often misunderstood. Scarcity is not specifically related to a poorer person or a poorer country. Scarcity has levels of magnitude, when comparing a poor person who cannot buy food, to a rich person who wants a 5th car. However, scarcity is simply is our inability to satisfy all of our wants, rich or poor.

Canada is a very rich country, yet economists still use the concept of scarcity. This is because the study and understanding of scarcity doesn't have a great deal to do with how rich the country is. It has to do with the decisions and choices everyone has to make. Everyone wants to do, and obtain, many things in their lives. However, all of us are limited by many things such as time, income, and the prices we have to pay for things.

For example, a poorer person has to decide which two items to buy out of milk, eggs, and bread, excluding one of the items. On the other hand, a richer person wants to go on a cruise, but also wants to finish up a business proposal for his job. Both of these situations are cases of scarcity, even though their financial lives are very different. They both have wants that they are unable to satisfy and are both faced with a choice they have to make.

Canada, like every other country, is faced with scarcity among all of their different peoples. Just because Canada is a rich country and isn't faced with harsh life-or-death decisions as much as some third-world countries, that does not mean that there is no scarcity in Canada. The scarcity in Canada is at a different level compared to a poorer country, but the concept of scarcity is just the same. The magnitude of scarcity between different countries is irrelevant; scarcity it is still simply our inability to satisfy all of our wants.

Incentives play a major role in how we make our decisions when faced with a choice due to scarcity. If the business man, who was