China's Growth Rate Devastating Earth

Scarcity is "a situation in which the ingredients for producing the things that people desire are insufficient to satisfy all wants" (Miller 27). Scarcity occurs because there are not enough natural resources to meet all human wants. It was present in the past, exists in the present, and shall continue in the future.

In Jim Lobe's article "Too Much for Mother Earth", he discusses how China's growth rate is detrimental to earth. With statistics, Lobe shows how, if the country's economy continues to strengthen and expand at the rate it is today, not only will China exceed the United States current per capita income (the total national income divided by the number of people in the nation) but also stretch the earth's resources beyond what it is able to provide. Lobe specifically emphasizes the production of grain, energy, steel, and paper products.

"Scarcity is the most basic concept in all of economics" (Miller 27). Scarcity happens when humans begin overproducing goods and using up all resources in order to meet people's demands. "Resources are the inputs used in the production of the things that we want" (Miller 27), such as capital (manufactured resources and human education), entrepreneurship (people who organize, operate, and assume the risk for a business venture), land (a natural resource, oil, trees, food, etc.), and labor (worker output). Since people constantly crave more of what is not needed, the extraction of natural resources from earth exceeds what is available.

Scarcity is not the same as a shortage. An example of shortage would be if students needed a certain textbook for class but could not obtain it. This does not mean the textbook is nonexistent, simply others got to the textbook first and there is now a shortage of the particular book. But if the textbook did not exist because a dearth in the production of paper then it would mean the scarcity of trees and everyone would be affected. Scarcity involves constant decision making. Time is a resource that affects most people. Lack of time calls for people to make trade offs. A trade off is when a person picks one way to use a resource over its alternatives, such as choosing to use time for writing a scarcity essay for AP economics over sleeping because getting a good grade in the class is more important. These choices and the possible outcomes can be displayed by a productions possibilities curve. The PPC helps people decide how to best use their resource to their advantage according to what outcomes may occur based on their decisions.

In "Too Much for Mother Earth", Lobe points out that even if China's per capital income continues developing at its current rate of only 8% it will still surpass the US income by 2040. The problem is, Lobe points out, if the people of China begin