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Scarcity and Unlimited Wants:-
Man cannot get all that he wants. This is known as need.
There is no finale to this need in human life. To give an example, you are a student.
Let us assume, you have one thousand taka. You need shirt, pant and good shoes. In this manner
you will find that you need many things. But you have only one thousand taka. Paralleled
to your needs, the amount of money is very little. In economics, this is accepted
as 'scarcity of resources'. Because of scarcity, man chooses or selects according to the
significance. If there was no
need to choose, there would have been no need for the
discipline, economics.
Scarcity and UnlimitedWants The main problem of humans is not to be able to get
everything in proportion to the wants. To produce any goods (e.g.- books) or services (e.g.-
medical services) resources are necessary. But "wealth is limited." It is,
thereby, possible to get limited goods and limited services by the means of limited wealth. Therefore,
with limited wealth, all the necessities of men are not fulfilled. This is the reason of
scarcity. Scarcity would not have been created if there were lesser needs.
Famous economist
professor L. Robins says, "Economics is a science that analyses human behavior
related to the combination of unlimited wants and alternatively usable scarce
resources." According to economist Samuelson, since resources are scarce, therefore, the
question of the best utilization of the resources in the society holds such importance. The want for
resources obtained from the nature, like sunlight or wind is very high. But we do not
have to spend any money to get these. Usually there is no scarcity for these resources. Since
the wants of humans are too many and resources are limited, therefore, with these
limited resources all the wants of humans are not satisfied. Amongst numerous wants, humans
satisfy a few. And they fulfill these wants judging the importance of these wants. Humans
satiate the most necessary wants on priority basis. This is known as selection of want.
