Scarcity

[Forstater, Mathew]

Justin sez:
>The other limit is time. Human effort is itself scarce in the sense that
>each of us can only put out so much of it in our limited lives, so that if

this is the penultimate neoclassical position underpinning the notion of
"opportunity cost." (I'm not saying that is Justin's purpose or position, just
that "time" is the ultimate scarce resource for neoclassicals.) Even if nothing
else were 'scarce', the fact that when you are doing one thing you are not doing
something else means that 'decisions have to be made'--decisions about
'allocating' scarce resources among alternative uses, or 'competing ends.'  It
is often presented as a Robinson Crusoe story. Lionel Robbins is the classic
reference.