An Antidote to the Scarcity Mindset

Getting trapped into a scarcity mindset on account of poverty and hunger is certainly understandable. But how about the intelligentsia that is over-nourished and over- clothed? Scarcity mindset is an irony here, coming as it does from a land of rich myths with a thousand noble characters. Remember Kunti, Yudhishtira, Karna and others?The scarcity mindset has major implications. Take the issue of Competition. It is amazing how easily we understand the idea of competition; the problem is that our understanding is convoluted! Competition can be on the demand side or on the supply side. On the demand side, competitive mindset and scarcity mentality are synonymous. There is intense rivalry to take things: whether it pertains to the ration card or the identity card, cooking gas connection, or making contacts at high places. While competition can exist on the take side, there can be competition on the give side too. This supply side competition is something our society has not thought through adequately.

That free market economics is predicated upon supply side competition (or the give side) is something we need to mull over and understand.No doubt, in every transaction there is a give and take. Marketing may degenerate into taking over the territories to create unfair monopolies. It may result in taking over the mind of the customer by persuasive unethical propaganda. These are excesses which need balancing forces. However, let us not forget the fundamentals. The idea of marketing is rooted in the idea of keenly finding out what the consumer wants and giving choice to the customer, essentially ideas on the give side. A predominantly take mentality reduces ourselves morally and spiritually. Scarcity becomes the Scarcity of the Mind.

All told, scarcity mindset may be the biggest enemy of wealth creation. Whether we are referring to wealth of the financial or non-financial variety, the important issue is the very approach towards wealth itself. Scarcity mindset plays havoc particularly with intangible wealth such as trust and social capital. With scarcity mindset one just will not be able to conceive that sharing can be mutually beneficial; after all one’s gain is only at the cost of others. All transaction would then become, at best, tactical and at worst, a matter of snatching. Scarcity mindset seriously erodes the power of noble thinking and action, and it sabotages cooperative behaviour. Nobility becomes a matter of luxury for the “moralist” for indulging himself or herself. In other words, nobility would then have no practical value except for self-indulgence. “Business Today”, December 05, 2004 posted by Sankaran at Sunday, February 26, 2006 Location:TAPMI, Manipal, Karnataka, India