What Is Produced?

Each society has resources available that play a role in deciding what should be produced. If a country has extremely talented corn farmers and perfect soil for growing corn, that country will probably choose to produce corn. Because the country is efficient at growing corn, the cost will be cheaper. If the country has no talent in growing apples, the cost of learning, training and developing the soil to grow apples would be very high. In a world of scarcity, the government or the market might decide that it is not worth it to grow apples.

How Is it Produced?

Because of advances in technology, machines can often now do work for a cheaper price than people can. Because of this, workers lose their jobs and may remain unemployed. Because of a scarcity of resources and a demand for cheap prices, companies choose to use the machines. In societies where people work for very little, some corporations find that using machines is more expensive than using manual labor. If scarcity didn't exist, the consideration of which method of production was cheapest would not come into play.

Produced for Whom?

Because of the scarcity of resources, decisions need to be made about who resources are produced for. The government might make a decision to build roads, which could benefit wealthier people who own cars and oil companies that fuel the cars. On the other hand, the government could decide to invest in public transportation and light rail systems which could benefit people with lower incomes who need a cheap way to get to work. Without scarcity, the government could invest in both. With scarcity, the government needs to decide if they should help the wealthy who own businesses or the less wealthy who are the main source of production.