Will Basic Economic Problem ever be solved - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... tisfied with the quality and quantity of goods and services they have, and they always want more; but the nature has finite resources at any given point in time.
The problem of scarcity can be solved, and is being solved, through the technological advances. Scarcity means that while a person enjoys one resource at a given time, he has to give up another to let others enjoy, or the society ends up with some people enjoying the resources and some not. Technology in the industrialized nations has made the resources available to almost everyone at the doorstep. For example, medical health services are being provided even to remote areas through telemedicine and e-health, which remotely residing people could never think of availing. Distance education is made possible through online education, and so, remotely residing people, or those who cannot afford high university fee, can also get the same standard of education as those who can afford it.
However, the counter-argument is that scarcity can never be solved because it is never enough for everybody. Nature has finite number of resources that have to end at a certain time, but population will keep on growing and requiring. Human beings have finite choices, finite opportunities, finite time on earth, and finite energy to produce resources. Similarly, there is finite labor, capital and other economic resources in the market. Natural resources like air and solar energy are infinite, but labor and capital is required to turn these natural resources into usable energy. Technology can be used to convert solar energy into heat or electrical energy, but labor and capital is required, which is again finite. Hence, cobweb of economic finiteness makes scarcity a big problem. Nonetheless, considering the rate at which technological advances are being made, no one knows what technology holds for us in future with respect to solving the problem of scarcity.
To conclude, scarcity is a major economic problem as human needs keep on ...Download file to see next pagesRead More