Rethinking Scarcity: Neoclassicism, NeoMalthusianism, and NeoManrsm

Julie Matthaei
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Julie Matthaei: Department of Economics, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02181

Review of Radical Political Economics, 1984, vol. 16, issue 2-3, 81-94

Abstract: Neoclassical economic theory holds that scarcity is the inevitable and central economic problem, to which our present "free market economy" provides the optimal solution. Recently, this claim has been challenged by neoMathusians associated with the Zero Population Growth and Ecology movements, who argue that our practice of continued economic growth is inconsistent with the reality of scarcity. While the neoMalthusians have provided the basis of a critique both of neoclassical theory and of our present economic system, their acceptance of the neoclassical view of scarcity has prevented them from developing an adequate theory of their own. To understand scarcity, we must move our focus away from the relationship between people and resources and center on the social relationships which constitute the core of economic life. NeoMarxian theory provides the basis for such analysis; it can be used to show that while advanced capitalism has institutionalized scarcity, it has also developed the means for its eradication.

Date: 1984
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