A discovery by Europe’s ruling class — that desperation is more effective than force — has driven five centuries of enclosure, colonialism, and financialization. It still governs our world today.
Interesting read. I think we maybe can add a tool to the box that had been exploited the maximum - the territorial and absolute nation-state. It was gradually imposed by the elites on the peoples of Europe after the Westphalian peace 1648, and then spread around the world. Europe was first colonised, then the rest of the world. If you want to impose scarcity, controlling the absolute powers of the nation-states certainly helps.
Absolutely right, Jrx! My upcoming book, Ecocivilization, also has a chapter on global governance and explores alternatives to the nation-state which, not coincidentally, arose in early modern Europe along with colonialism, capitalism, etc.
Thank you for illuminating this dark history and reality, Jeremy. I’m sure you’re not the first to do so, but it does surprise me that this perspective is not more widely known and discussed. I guess that its current virtual invisibility, as you say, is why the scarcity model is much less known than it should be. As intended.
It is extraordinary that this state of affairs has become so accepted as the norm to the extent that many cannot envision a different paradigm. I suspect that this is a feature of making the population dependent on the state / commerce juggernaut inducing a sense of helplessness in the face of such accumulated power. Time does the rest.
The moral of the story: Justice requires the public capture of economic rents from all sources, to be used to pay for public goods and services. Only by doing so will monopoly of the planet's land and natural resources be effectively ended. There would be more than adequate revenue to then provide a universal basic income (or dividend) to all.
I remember being in freshman economics at the University of Wisconsin - 1990 - and raising my hand in a huge lecture of about 400 students to ask two questions: What if the rational belief model that undergirds supply and demand is untrue? Now we have behavioral economics that espouses just that. And second question: Isn’t it obvious that scarcity is invented? My econ professor laughed long and hard - former Reagan appointee - and suggested that I could explore the "limits of those ideas" with my study group. That moment stuck with me. Critical thinking smashed by ridicule. Yet here we are….acknowledging that scarcity is invented. I’m not so brilliant. It’s more that these ideas are so glib, so ridiculous on their face, that if you have any moxie at all, you’ll get it. Or you’ll choose to be a lemming and believe that people in charcoal business suits somehow know things the rest of us don’t.
What an excellent summary. We need to get it in to mainstream education. The popular Globalization of the 1990’s onwards is the replacement for Colonialism and formal slavery. But who is going to give up jet skis, leave blowers, gold chains and 24-hour ice cream?
so many are realising this now - ....'The truth is that the global system we live in was not built simply through ingenuity. It was built through violent enclosure, dispossession, colonization, forced extraction, and the systematic transfer of wealth from the many to the few. And until we understand that history, it is almost impossible to understand why today’s world remains so extremely unequal—and why ecological devastation is woven so deeply into the foundations of our civilization.'
and you dont have to look far to still see what it is what it has done and how it still holds us...
Hi Jeremy, great observations of yours regarding our insatiable need for more and more wealth, no matter how well off we are as individuals and how destitute the rest of the world may be. I believe this need is inherent to what I have come to know as the separated self of human self-consciousness. That self; this I, this Me that I believe I am lives in a subconscious state of fear: "I exist, I am separate, I am limited, I am vulnerable and I am mortal ... I WILL DIE!" We attempt to offset this existential fear by accumulating more and more property, belongings and wealth and by fighting and dying for "God, home and country." Short of a fundamental transformation or evolution of self-consciousness, I see no way to avoid the eventual self-destruction of the Anthropocene. Oh well, nothing lasts forever, nor is meant to. There would be no such thing as evolution if it did. Let's give our love, our caring, our sharing and our good works to the moment and let God and the Universe do what they will with tomorrow. Keep searching and keep writing. That's what you are here for ... and I love it! Thank you, Peter
This made me think of the play, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill. A wonderful examination of enclosure, Diggers, Levellers, and Ranters. Of how the wealthy turn people against themselves, of hope that we can resist.
What you've named here is the engine beneath the engine. Scarcity isn't the natural condition — it's the manufactured one. The most durable form of control doesn't require force. It requires removing the alternatives until compliance feels like choice. Thirty years inside government and corporate systems watching this machinery operate convinced me that the Common Man's struggle isn't a personal failing. It's the predictable output of a system designed to produce exactly that. The work now is helping people see the design — because you cannot refuse what you cannot name.
We need to also recognise people’s limited capacity to understand all this and support people to think critically, broadly and over the long term. This form of adult development is different to the standard model of knowledge acquisition and skill development, also important, but alone it will not lead to adults with the complexity of thought sufficient to meet the complexity of the challenges we as a species face!
Thank you for this! It is very much in line with the deep orientation of my campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent in Illinois. Here are some recent campaign essays that I think you will find deeply resonant:
Good for you, Steven! I’ve followed you on Substack. I wish you luck in your campaign. You might also be interested in the Ecocivilization Coalition: www.ecociv.org
Many decades ago Paul Douglas served in the U.S. Senate from Illinois. Douglas was an economist strongly influenced by the analysis provided by Henry George in the late 19th century. Douglas believed George was correct in arguing for the elimination of all taxation except for the taxation of land values (i.e., the economic rent of land and other natural assets).
Thank you for this explanation! It resonated with me. I'm a retired physician and 25 years ago began to wonder about what I saw as "artificial scarcity" when medications would suddenly not be available for long periods of time - putting vulnerable patients at risk. I retired shortly thereafter, feeling like I was unable to practice ethically in today's environment.
I admire this scholarly article, but as I see the history of humankind, the first oligarchy (and thus the first false scarcity) was established long before Europe was a concept, when some dominator built a fence and declared "ownership." Hierarchy was invented then, and the masses were deprived of natural abundance. Religion later came about, to conjure a Holy Kingdom, outside of which could only be found scarcity and suffering. Nature was never the cause of any of this; scarcity is physically impossible! (Ask a physicist, or a biologist.)
Isn't it time for us to collectively evolve beyond the scarcity stories (and all the rest of the stories that lock us into linear time, hierarchy, and "otherness")?
Interesting read. I think we maybe can add a tool to the box that had been exploited the maximum - the territorial and absolute nation-state. It was gradually imposed by the elites on the peoples of Europe after the Westphalian peace 1648, and then spread around the world. Europe was first colonised, then the rest of the world. If you want to impose scarcity, controlling the absolute powers of the nation-states certainly helps.
Absolutely right, Jrx! My upcoming book, Ecocivilization, also has a chapter on global governance and explores alternatives to the nation-state which, not coincidentally, arose in early modern Europe along with colonialism, capitalism, etc.
Sure Jeremy, yet I'm also thinking what was there before the nation-states. Here's more on that, https://www.panarchy.org/johnsson/review.2005.html. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Thank you for illuminating this dark history and reality, Jeremy. I’m sure you’re not the first to do so, but it does surprise me that this perspective is not more widely known and discussed. I guess that its current virtual invisibility, as you say, is why the scarcity model is much less known than it should be. As intended.
Not taught because Mandatory government schooling where content of education is carefully curated won't allow it.
It is extraordinary that this state of affairs has become so accepted as the norm to the extent that many cannot envision a different paradigm. I suspect that this is a feature of making the population dependent on the state / commerce juggernaut inducing a sense of helplessness in the face of such accumulated power. Time does the rest.
The moral of the story: Justice requires the public capture of economic rents from all sources, to be used to pay for public goods and services. Only by doing so will monopoly of the planet's land and natural resources be effectively ended. There would be more than adequate revenue to then provide a universal basic income (or dividend) to all.
Great synopsis of how we got here, many thanks 🙏🏼
I remember being in freshman economics at the University of Wisconsin - 1990 - and raising my hand in a huge lecture of about 400 students to ask two questions: What if the rational belief model that undergirds supply and demand is untrue? Now we have behavioral economics that espouses just that. And second question: Isn’t it obvious that scarcity is invented? My econ professor laughed long and hard - former Reagan appointee - and suggested that I could explore the "limits of those ideas" with my study group. That moment stuck with me. Critical thinking smashed by ridicule. Yet here we are….acknowledging that scarcity is invented. I’m not so brilliant. It’s more that these ideas are so glib, so ridiculous on their face, that if you have any moxie at all, you’ll get it. Or you’ll choose to be a lemming and believe that people in charcoal business suits somehow know things the rest of us don’t.
What an excellent summary. We need to get it in to mainstream education. The popular Globalization of the 1990’s onwards is the replacement for Colonialism and formal slavery. But who is going to give up jet skis, leave blowers, gold chains and 24-hour ice cream?
so many are realising this now - ....'The truth is that the global system we live in was not built simply through ingenuity. It was built through violent enclosure, dispossession, colonization, forced extraction, and the systematic transfer of wealth from the many to the few. And until we understand that history, it is almost impossible to understand why today’s world remains so extremely unequal—and why ecological devastation is woven so deeply into the foundations of our civilization.'
and you dont have to look far to still see what it is what it has done and how it still holds us...
Elegantly articulated.
Hi Jeremy, great observations of yours regarding our insatiable need for more and more wealth, no matter how well off we are as individuals and how destitute the rest of the world may be. I believe this need is inherent to what I have come to know as the separated self of human self-consciousness. That self; this I, this Me that I believe I am lives in a subconscious state of fear: "I exist, I am separate, I am limited, I am vulnerable and I am mortal ... I WILL DIE!" We attempt to offset this existential fear by accumulating more and more property, belongings and wealth and by fighting and dying for "God, home and country." Short of a fundamental transformation or evolution of self-consciousness, I see no way to avoid the eventual self-destruction of the Anthropocene. Oh well, nothing lasts forever, nor is meant to. There would be no such thing as evolution if it did. Let's give our love, our caring, our sharing and our good works to the moment and let God and the Universe do what they will with tomorrow. Keep searching and keep writing. That's what you are here for ... and I love it! Thank you, Peter
This made me think of the play, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill. A wonderful examination of enclosure, Diggers, Levellers, and Ranters. Of how the wealthy turn people against themselves, of hope that we can resist.
What you've named here is the engine beneath the engine. Scarcity isn't the natural condition — it's the manufactured one. The most durable form of control doesn't require force. It requires removing the alternatives until compliance feels like choice. Thirty years inside government and corporate systems watching this machinery operate convinced me that the Common Man's struggle isn't a personal failing. It's the predictable output of a system designed to produce exactly that. The work now is helping people see the design — because you cannot refuse what you cannot name.
We need to also recognise people’s limited capacity to understand all this and support people to think critically, broadly and over the long term. This form of adult development is different to the standard model of knowledge acquisition and skill development, also important, but alone it will not lead to adults with the complexity of thought sufficient to meet the complexity of the challenges we as a species face!
Thank you for this! It is very much in line with the deep orientation of my campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent in Illinois. Here are some recent campaign essays that I think you will find deeply resonant:
https://steven3c6.substack.com/p/the-economy-of-abundance-and-healthcare?r=21x2h&utm_medium=ios
https://steven3c6.substack.com/p/world-politics-on-a-new-foundation?r=21x2h&utm_medium=ios
https://steven3c6.substack.com/p/towards-a-new-freedom-budget?r=21x2h&utm_medium=ios
Good for you, Steven! I’ve followed you on Substack. I wish you luck in your campaign. You might also be interested in the Ecocivilization Coalition: www.ecociv.org
Thank you Jeremy!
Many decades ago Paul Douglas served in the U.S. Senate from Illinois. Douglas was an economist strongly influenced by the analysis provided by Henry George in the late 19th century. Douglas believed George was correct in arguing for the elimination of all taxation except for the taxation of land values (i.e., the economic rent of land and other natural assets).
Thank you for this explanation! It resonated with me. I'm a retired physician and 25 years ago began to wonder about what I saw as "artificial scarcity" when medications would suddenly not be available for long periods of time - putting vulnerable patients at risk. I retired shortly thereafter, feeling like I was unable to practice ethically in today's environment.
I admire this scholarly article, but as I see the history of humankind, the first oligarchy (and thus the first false scarcity) was established long before Europe was a concept, when some dominator built a fence and declared "ownership." Hierarchy was invented then, and the masses were deprived of natural abundance. Religion later came about, to conjure a Holy Kingdom, outside of which could only be found scarcity and suffering. Nature was never the cause of any of this; scarcity is physically impossible! (Ask a physicist, or a biologist.)
Isn't it time for us to collectively evolve beyond the scarcity stories (and all the rest of the stories that lock us into linear time, hierarchy, and "otherness")?