What it’s about
The piece “The Narrative of Scarcity – How Lack Became Power” exposes one of the central myths of modern economics: the belief that scarcity is a natural condition. I aim to show that scarcity is not an objective fact but a culturally constructed interpretive framework – an ideological tool used to discipline desire, justify competition, and uphold global power imbalances. Rather than accepting scarcity as an economic given, the text proposes a radical shift. Resources – whether material, social, or intellectual – are in fact malleable, reconfigurable, and abundantly available. It is our way of thinking that renders them scarce. Drawing on thermodynamics, quantum physics, systems theory, and a post-utilitarian anthropology, the essay calls for a new kind of economy – one based on potential instead of lack, on creativity instead of control, and on resonance instead of efficiency. The essay culminates in an appeal: only by leaving the narrative of scarcity behind can a more just, inspiring, and generative economy emerge – an economy of abundance, trust, and the collective play of possibilities.
Take-aways:
- Scarcity is not a law of nature, but a cultural narrative. It was constructed to legitimize order, control, and hierarchies – not because resources are actually lacking.
- Economics is based on a false image of humanity. The Homo economicus as a rational utility-maximizer is an ideological construct – humans act out of meaning, connection, and creativity (Homo creativus).
- Our financial systems systematically generate scarcity. Debt, interest, and the pressure for growth create an artificial “never-enough” that turns scarcity into a structural constant.
- Scientific findings contradict the scarcity paradigm. Thermodynamics, quantum physics, and systems theory show: energy circulates, matter is changeable, and potentials remain open.
- Global inequality is therefore not a distribution problem, but a mental coding problem. Many societies have culturally internalized scarcity – as a legacy of colonial devaluation and structural dependency.
- Abundance is a question of interpretive power. Whoever defines what counts as a resource dominates access, value creation, and scope for action – regardless of actual supply.
- Creativity resists scarcity. In shadow economies, repair cultures, and informal markets, the unbroken potency of human creativity becomes evident – even under exclusionary conditions.
- The logic of scarcity prevents innovation. Those who start from risk will never see the possibilities. Innovation arises where potential is recognized, not where lack is managed.
- A new economy must be based on trust, resonance, and creative excess. Not efficiency, but relational capacity, freedom, and play make systems fit for the future.
- The real scarcity lies not in nature, but in thought. Transformation begins where we unlearn the mental narrative of scarcity and turn abundance into social practice.
Further Thought – The Full Essay in the Original Wording:
The notion that we live in a world of limited resources forms the ideological foundation of modern economies. Scarcity is regarded as the starting point of economic theory and as a source of legitimacy for competition, efficiency maximization, and the pressure for growth. But this notion is a lie that leads us to do things we don’t really want to do and prevents us from doing what we truly want.
At the same time, it serves a quiet, authoritarian function: by making lack a basic assumption, it disciplines our desires, governs our decisions, and draws boundaries around what is considered reasonable, possible, or legitimate. Those who do not acknowledge scarcity are quickly deemed naive, irresponsible, or even dangerous. Thus, scarcity becomes not only an economic dogma but also a cultural technique of control. Yet this notion is not only incomplete but also misleading.
Scarcity as a Cultural Construct
Scarcity is not simply given – it is created. By declaring resources as limited, we established a framework for exchange, valuation, and distribution – thus the classical economy emerged. Without the assumption of scarcity, there would be no price formation, no markets, and no competition in the traditional sense. Scarcity is the spirit we released from the bottle to become economically active.
The idea of scarcity ignores fundamental insights from modern natural sciences.
This happens through property rights, access restrictions, monopolistic infrastructures, and not least through economic theories that presuppose scarcity to justify themselves. Those who assert scarcity legitimize hierarchies. Who gets how much? Who decides that? And on what basis?
In reality, we live in abundance: of solar energy, human creativity, circulating matter, and technical knowledge. Yet this abundance is institutionally filtered and market-logically restricted. Our financial systems, for example, are based on debt and interest mechanisms that enforce constant scarcity to maintain control and dynamism.
Thermodynamics, Systems Theory, and Quantum Physics
The idea of scarcity ignores fundamental insights from modern natural sciences. Thermodynamics already teaches us that energy does not disappear but only transforms. In closed systems, entropy may increase – but the human economic system is not a closed system; it is open, dynamic, embedded in an energetic cycle.
Current quantum physics goes even further: it shows that matter is not a fixed, separable unit, but a relational phenomenon. Everything is connected to everything else; separation is an illusion. In the quantum realm, there are no absolute boundaries, only probabilities, potentials, and fluctuations.
Applied to economics, this means: resources are not rigid and finite, but context-dependent, mutable, and reconfigurable. Scarcity is not a given reality, but a dominant interpretive framework that we could unlearn – if we choose to.
The Human as Homo Creativus
Neoclassical economics has shaped the image of the “homo economicus”: a rational, utility-maximizing being in a world of scarcity. But humans do not act primarily rationally. We act out of attachment, desire, emotion – and very often conviction. Our drive is not scarcity, but meaning.
A new economic paradigm would need to place the “homo creativus” at its center: a being that does not consume resources, but transforms them. Not efficiency, but resonance. Not control, but relationship.
Money, Debt, and the Architecture of Scarcity
Our current financial systems are based on fiat money, which is secured by trust and institutional power. Yet this system generates permanent scarcity through interest and debt structures – a “never enough” that makes growth a necessity.
A culture that mistrusts itself cannot unfold its potential.
Capital thus becomes structural scarcity management. Money is no longer a medium of exchange, but a control mechanism. This architecture transfers the logic of scarcity into all areas of society: education, housing, care, energy, food. Scarcity is not real, but produced.
Global Inequality – Mental Legacy or Mechanical Distribution?
That some countries live in permanent scarcity while others drown in abundance is not merely a coincidence of geography or a distribution problem. It is an expression of a deeper mental coding, a collective worldview that has internalized scarcity differently through its cultural construction.
The narrative of lack generates fear – not of loss, but of the unknown. Thus, possibility turns into risk, and becoming into threat. A culture that mistrusts itself cannot unfold its potential.
Artificially produced scarcity is therefore not only an economic control logic but also a psychopolitical matrix. It shapes communities’ perceptions of themselves and their possibilities. In many regions of the Global South, a consciousness has been formed over centuries that not only experiences scarcity but also internalizes it – often as a result of colonial exploitation, structural dependency, and cultural devaluation. Here, scarcity is not only experienced but believed.
Abundance as Interpretive Power
In contrast, some societies could afford the mental model of abundance – not because they objectively possessed more, but because they held the interpretive power to define resources, control access, and dominate value creation. They think in possibilities, others in scarcity.
Creative energy cannot be destroyed – it circulates, transforms, and continuously takes on new forms.
The division thus runs not only between North and South but between two worldviews: one of limitation and one of potency. However, this polarization is not a law of nature but the result of an ideology that has established scarcity as a prerequisite for order, control, and growth.
Breaking the Ideology of Scarcity
As long as we hold on to this ideology, we will not only reproduce global inequality but also culturally cement it. Only when we begin to expose scarcity as a mental fiction and cultivate abundance as a social practice will a more just world become possible.
This is evident not least in shadow economies: even under extreme conditions of deprivation, people from the poorest regions of the world repeatedly find creative ways to express their actual potential. Whether in improvised markets, repair cultures, self-organized community projects, or informal economies – human creative power is indelible.
Resistant Creativity as Proof
Creative energy cannot be destroyed; it circulates, transforms, and continually finds new forms of expression. Especially where formal access to resources is blocked, an economy of ingenuity often flourishes. This resistant creativity escapes control, subverts the logic of scarcity, and proves: humans are not passive victims of economic circumstances but active agents of creation.
The question is not whether potential exists, but whether we recognize, nurture, and channel it into systemic pathways that do not manage scarcity but unfold possibilities.
The Spirit Released from the Bottle
Scarcity was the necessary myth to bring order to a potentially infinite world. But what once served as a tool has become autonomous. The narrative of scarcity is no longer a means of organization but a dogma – a worldview that replaces cooperation with competition and systematically constructs scarcity from potential abundance.
The real scarcity does not exist in nature. It exists in our thinking.
Had we instead oriented ourselves around the idea of abundance—that needs are not in constant competition but can be satisfied through communal creation—perhaps a cooperative and solidaristic economic system would have emerged.
Instead, our economy thrives on a constant state of emergency driven by lack. The myth of scarcity ensures that we do not pause, do not share, do not trust, but act faster, more efficiently, and harder. Not because it is necessary, but because we have been told there is not enough for everyone. This spirit released from the bottle has blinded us to the possibility that things could be different.
Rethinking an Economy of Abundance and Waste
What we need is not another technical update, but a shift in perspective. We need an economy that starts not from scarcity, but from potential. An economy of surplus, not sacrifice. An economy that does not discipline, but unleashes. An economy that does not manage, but inspires.
Natural resources may be finite, but the scarcity that shapes our economy is mostly man-made. It is not nature that sets the sharpest limits, but the narrative we tell about it. We should stop viewing limitation as an absolute truth and no longer see waste as a mistake but as an opportunity: an expression of experimental freedom, meaningful play, and inspiring creativity. Because the real scarcity does not exist in nature. It exists in our thinking. And it is precisely there that change begins.
