1. Resource scarcity is a false proposition
Abstract: Resource scarcity is thecore theme of microeconomics. Macroeconomics is a study of resource surplus,which leads to a serious confrontation between microeconomics andmacroeconomics. Then, is the resourcescarce or surplus? All kinds of phenomena show that the impact of surplus onthe market is immediate and real, and the impact of scarcity on the market isfar-reaching and ethereal...
1.1 resourcesare scarce, or surplus
Scarcity and efficiency are the dualthemes of economics. Why do you saythis? Because in this world, all the items are scarce, including the stones inthe mountains, the underground minerals, the corals in the sea, and even thefresh air of the sky. Only by improvingefficiency can we make better use of these limited resources and produce moregoods.
Economics is such a science thatstudies how society can use scarce resources to produce more goods and how torationally distribute them.
Why is resources scarce? Because humandesires are endless, and the resources of this world cannot be infinite, andcertainly limited. Therefore, with limited resources, people can never satisfythe infinite desires of people, and resources naturally Scarce.
For example, in the United States,after more than 200 years of continuous development after the founding of thePeople's Republic of China, the production capacity of the United States hasalready ranked first in the world, but the indescribable desire of everyone isstill completely unsatisfiable, or the wealth that the United States now hascannot even satisfy every A small part of American consumer desires! Itsnational output has to be expanded many, many times, so that the ordinaryAmerican public can reach the high standard of life of American doctors orleague baseball players. As forcountries outside the United States, especially in Africa. There, thousands of people are still inhunger and cold, and the distance between desire and output is even greater.
The above examples seem to fullyexplain the scarcity of resources. Thereason why it is "seemingly" rather than "affirmative" isbecause a well-known economist certainly cannot fully agree with economicsabout the scarcity of resources. Who is this famous economist? We call himKeynes Mr.
Why is Keynes unable to agree witheconomics about the scarcity of resources? Because Keynes is known for studyingthe problem of overproduction.
Overproductionis a total production of social goods that greatly exceeds the existing DemandThe economic phenomenon can also be said to be aphenomenon of relative surplus of resources, including surplus commodities andsurplus labor. Most countries in theworld today, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany,etc., have experienced overproduction, which has led to a serious economiccrisis, economic depression, and experienced the suffering caused byoverproduction. The Great Depressionlike the 1930s was caused by overproduction.
Therefore, after a long period ofobservation, Keynes found that although there are still many shortcomings inthe field of supply shortage, that is, the social phenomenon of resourceshortage, in modern society, the most troubled people are not the problem ofscarcity of resources, but the phenomenon of overproduction, withindustrialization. The process of overproduction has been rampant, such as theunemployment of workers (overcapacity of human resources) and the slow sales ofgoods (excess product).
In order to alleviate the economic depression caused by overproduction,maintain the sustained growth of the economy. A generation of economics master Cairns created an economic disciplinecalled Macroeconomics, which specifically analyzes how to overcome the problemof excess production (resources) in the real world, because overproduction isthe biggest waste of resources.
Why is there a phenomenon ofoverproduction?
From the perspective of demand, the root cause of overproductionis the diminishing effect of marginal utility.
The diminishing marginal utility meansthat the satisfaction level obtained from each unit of merchandise isdecremented as the consumer continues to increase the consumption of a certaincommodity within a certain period of time.
For example, to drink Coke: On a hotday, you are thirsty and want to buy cola. For the first cup of cola, you canget 10 units of satisfaction, then the marginal utility is 10; then drink asecond cup of cola, because there is For the sake of the first cup, thesatisfaction you get from the second cup of cola will not be satisfied with thesatisfaction of the first cup of cola, and may fall to the satisfaction of 8units, then the marginal utility of the second cup of cola is 8... By analogy,when you drink the fifth Coke, you may have already had enough to drink, andthere is no satisfaction. Then the fifth cup of Coke has zero marginal effecton you. When I went to the sixth cup,you vomited when you drank. Not only did you feel unsatisfied, but you feltthat you were guilty of living, and it became a negative effect...
Intraditional economics, people generally use the theory of diminishing marginalutility to illustrate the relationship of demand, that is, the more the quantityof a commodity is sold in the market within a certain period of time, the lowerits price. However, it can also be usedto illustrate the "root cause" of overproduction. That is, according to the law of diminishingmarginal utility: it shows that in a certain period of time, people's demandfor a certain product will have a limit, beyond which the product will besurplus. For example, in a certainperiod of time, the whole society's artificial n, when a single person'smaximum consumption of a product reaches q, the marginal utility is"0", then the whole society's maximum demand for a product is n. q, if the output of a product exceeds n. q, there will be absolutely excess.
Anotherreason for overproduction is the disparity between the rich and the poor insociety, resulting in insufficient effective demand. The performance is: in the expansion of theproduction of certain commodities, on the one hand, the rich (high-incomeclass) no longer increase purchases due to demand, on the other hand, the poor(low-income class) lacks purchasing power, resulting in a backlog of products,causing a decline in production. Workers are unemployed, which in turn leads toa decline in demand and continues to evolve.
Insufficienteffective demand will result in a relative surplus in the production of certainproducts without an absolute excess. That is, if the total consumption of a product reaches q in a certainperiod of time and the average consumption of a product reaches q, the marginalutility is “0”, then the maximum demand for a product in the whole society is n. q, if the output of a product exceeds n. q, there will be absolutely excess. Due to the gap between the rich and the poorin society, in a certain period of time, when the average consumption of a productreaches qd (d is greater than 0, which is a relative surplus), and the marginalutility is "0", then when the output of a product exceeds n ( Whenqd), a product will appear relatively surplus.
The above paragraph can be understood as: if the demand isn. When q, the effective demand isn(qd). Insufficient effective demandmeans that because n(qd)<n. q,resulting in a relatively surplus production. What we are present in society is basically a relatively surplusphenomenon of production. That is, asthe production efficiency increases, more and more products are produced, andas a result, the demand for the ability to pay is relatively reduced, resultingin a large number of products not being sold. To avoid overproduction, the yield must be controlled within n(qd).