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SCARCE RESOURCE: A resource with an available quantity less than its desired use. Scarce resources are also called factors of production. Scarce goods are also termed economic goods. Scarce resources are used to produce scarce goods. Like the more general society-wide condition of scarcity, a given resource is scarce because it has a limited availability in combination with a greater (potentially unlimited) productive use. It's both of these that make it scarce. In other words, even though an item is quite limited it will not be a scarce resource if it has few if any uses (think pocket lint and free good).
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                           LIMITED RESOURCES: A basic condition of nature which means that the quantities of available labor, capital, land and entrepreneurship used for the production of goods and services are finite. It means that the economy has only so many resources that can be used AT ANY GIVEN TIME time to produce goods and services. Limited resources are one half of the fundamental problem of scarcity that has plagued humanity since the beginning of time. The other half of the scarcity problem is unlimited wants and needs. The phrase limited resources means that the quantities of productive resources available to the economy are finite. The economy has a finite amount of labor, capital, land, and entrepreneurship that it can use for production. It might have a lot of those resources, but the quantities are NOT infinite.Four ResourcesConsider the four broad resource categories:- Labor: This is the mental and physical efforts of humans (excluding entrepreneurial organization) that is used for the production of goods and services.
- Capital: This is the manufactured, artificial, or synthetic goods used in the production of other goods, including machinery, equipment, tools, buildings, and vehicles.
- Land: This is the naturally occurring materials of the planet that are used for the production of goods and services, including the land itself; the minerals and nutrients in the ground; the water, wildlife, and vegetation on the surface; and the air above.
- Entrepreneurship: This is the special sort of human effort that takes on the risk of bringing labor, capital, and land together to produce goods. Entrepreneurship is the factor that organizes the other three.
The existence of limited resources has a very important implication. AT ANY GIVEN TIME, the quantity of goods and services that the economy can produce is also limited. While a gadzillion workers is a large number, it is still a limited quantity. It is NOT a gadzillion and one workers. Limited Today, More TomorrowHaving limited resources today, however, does not mean that they are fixed for ALL TIME. The economy can make the quantities of the resources less limited. The two key terms to note here are economic growth and investment.- Economic growth is the process expanding the production capabilities of the economy by increasing the quantity or quality of resources. Economic growth is achieved through the fundamental process of investment.
- Investment is usually thought of as the acquisition of capital goods, or even more commonly as purchasing shares of corporate stock. However, in the context of economic growth, investment applies to other resources, as well. In other words, exploring for land or the material resources of land is investment. Improving the quality of labor through human capital is also an investment.
ScarcityWhen combined with unlimited wants and needs, limited resources results in the fundamental problem of scarcity.
Recommended Citation:LIMITED RESOURCES, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: April 25, 2025].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time flipping through mail order catalogs wanting to buy either a birthday gift for your father that doesn't look like every other birthday gift for your father or a green fountain pen. Be on the lookout for vindictive digital clocks with revenge on their minds.
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General Electric is the only stock from the original 1896 Dow Jones Industrial Average remaining in the current index.
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"The greatest things ever done on Earth have been done little by little. " -- William Jennings Bryan
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JFE
Journal of Financial Economics
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