Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Capitalism creates artificial scarcity despite producing abundance.
In plain terms
The system invents lack even when there is enough for everyone.
What can you take from it?
Recognize artificial scarcity in market systems.

Where it applies

  • economic analysis
  • consumer behavior
  • policy critique

Putting it to work

  • question supply limits
  • analyze distribution
  • critique market logic

Questions to consider

  • How does scarcity benefit economic organizers?
  • What resources are artificially limited?

Another view

True scarcity exists due to resource limits regardless of systems.

More from Linda McQuaig

  1. 'Short-term inequality remains a problem,' writes [right-wing scholar Dinesh] D'Souza... 'but is it a problem we can live with?' ...After searching his soul fo…

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. Under the market system, there is demand for a product if a lot of people want it - but that demand counts for nothing if those people have no money. If they l…

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. All our confidence in our ability to act collectively is being undermined, with the subtext message Whatever it is, the private sector can do it better. Never …

    Permalink to quote #7

Related quotes

  1. Laissez-faire capitalism, or anarchocapitalism, is simply the economic form of the libertarian ethic. Laissez-faire capitalism encompasses the notion that men …

    Karl HessKarl Hess quote #1
  2. Is that to say we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will…

    Karl MarxKarl Marx quote #1
  3. Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold, charitable and caring or hard…

    Lou KriegerLou Krieger quote #1