Scarcity is a myth?

[Die Rote Fahne]

This argument always comes into play when we talk about housing and feeding everyone. However, anyone with the smallest brain could come to the conclusion that this is bullshit. There's enough food to constantly supply everyone on the planet with enough sustenance to get fat, let alone stave of malnutrition.

Still, the arguments keep on a comin'. Like this one"



Scarcity is a myth that's crazy talk, resources are finite, you're talking of unlimited supply.. I want a hover board that'd be cool can I get one no. why? scarcity... they're scarce as they don't exist. If things that haven't been invented yet, if ever, don't count I'd also like a Rembrandt . Can I get one? no because demand outstrips supply thus I'm priced out of the market...


Plants need nutrients and light to grow & land or pools to grow in... these resources are limited, & is the labour required to cultivate them. We live in a universe where there is not an endless supply of anything. Even energy is finite we live in a finite universe, and everything in it thus is finite.
Infinity's an intellectual idea outside of reality, even supposed infinite's like huge numbers in our numeral system, are limited by the maximum calculating power of computers...
- Random youtube idiot.

Tell me revleft....what the fuck? I don't even know what they just said?

Let's clear this up once and for all. Is scarcity, as it applies to things like food and certain supplies, a myth?

[the Left™]

Scarcity has some relevance, but things like food and such are artificially scarce because they are not in short supply outside of market demand, but because of a market economy they are created in a fixed amount and as such are denoted with some level of "scarcity"

[Manic Impressive]

take a look at the food wasted by society under capitalism feeding clothing and housing the world is easily possible. Everyone having a Rembrandt each is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/08/food-waste

http://www.realitysandwich.com/global_food_wastage

[caramelpence]

Let me put it this way - a communist society would never be beyond scarcity in the sense of being able to meet every conceivable want that any human being could ever have because there are some kinds of goods that are scarce by their very nature, regardless of the existing state of technology. It would not be possible, for example, to meet someone's desire for a huge area of land that they should be allowed to wander around in regardless of how much that person wishes they were free to wander and not come into contact with anyone else over a huge distance - land is an example of a good that is scarce by its very nature, the same is true of Rembrandt paintings, though not necessarily artistic/creative stimulation as such, and there are arguably also goods of a more interpersonal or philosophical kind such as respect and love that can only ever be scarce and can only ever exist in unequal distributions. The meaning of communist abundance and the abolition of scarcity is that mankind has developed the technical capacity to meet all of the demands that need to be met in order to allow every human being (rather than just a small elite at the top of society) to live fulfilling lives that are consistent with their essential human characteristics. According to some accounts, the communist society can be understood as the democratization of something like Aristotle's vision of eudaimonia in that it involves the universalization of a form of human flourishing that was hitherto necessarily limited to a ruling class, because, in conditions where the production of necessities required large quantities of labour time, it was only through being supported by the labour of the rest of that society that the ruling class was able to enjoy a relatively fulfilling existence.