Member-only story
10 Ways Scarcity is Good for You
And 1 way it is not
When I was 23 I joined the navy. During the training, we lived in the navy barracks, 7000 of us, and we weren’t allowed out.
It was like prison.
All I could see were men in uniform, nothing else. For weeks on end, there was no sensory stimulation, no trees, no girls, no music, and no rainbows. It was far too yang.
And yet, after the initial shock was over, we got used to the new scenario and even managed to enjoy the training and the camaraderie.
That kind of situation is quite unusual and I wouldn’t choose it voluntarily, however, I learned a few lessons there, particularly, how the mind reacts to scarcity situations.
In that case, the scarcity came from the lack of freedom, sensory deprivation and lack of choice, but there are many other examples of scarcity in which the limited availability of resources and shortness of supply, causes constraints and limits to the people involved.
Scarcity is bad. People forced to live in poverty, famine and lack have very tough lives. First-world citizens, don’t realize the damage that scarcity can do to people
However, for us, spoiled brats, scarcity can do a lot of good when we chose it voluntarily for a limited period of time.
