Short note on scarcity and choice.

 Scarcity... 

We know that human wants are unlimited but human capacity to satisfy these wants is limited. In other words, scarcity is the fact of life. Goods and services have to be produced to satisfy human wants. Productive resources are necessary for this purpose. But the supply of productive resources are limited in relation to their demand. This is known as scarcity. The goods and services should be distributed among the people due to scarcity. 

        In common language, scarcity means not found in sufficient quantity. But in economics, scarcity refers to the limitations of product regarding the given demand. It's a relative term but not a absolute term. A goods is scarce because it possesses utility, it commands value and it is transferable from one person to another. For example: generally air is not scarce but air in cylinder is being scarce because we have to pay certain amount for this. In fact, all economic goods and services are scarce. We all face the problem of scarcity because we don't have sufficient resources to satisfy our wants. When we decide to produce one goods, we have to sacrifice the production of another goods. So life is always based on compromises. 

Choice... 

Since all desirable things are limited as compare to our needs so we have to choose to make careful use of scarce means that are available i.e we have to economise. Hence, the problem of choice arises. The means are limited due to this, men are unable to fulfill all their needs at once. Some goods should be sacrificed to obtain other goods. Therefore people postponed less urgent wants to satisfy urgent wants. For example: a student desiring to buy a economics book doesn't buy a recharge card. 

      The process of selecting the wants which can be fulfilled for the first time is called choice. In other words, the process of selecting best alternative out of several alternatives is called choice. The choice is to be made on the basis of intensity of wants. The people have to make a choice while spending income. They should think how much to spend and how much to save. It's also necessary to decide how much to spend on food, how much on dress, how much on recreation and so on. In this way, choice is the basic economic problem.