Great post, as always, @spectrumecons! Hopefully, you won't mind too much if I present a somewhat Austrian alternative to your analysis of labor:
Fundamental concepts like "scarcity" are usually the place where different schools of economics point in different directions. Austrians, for example, see a question like "is labor scarce?" to be a fundamentally confused one: Labor is, by very definition, scarce since it just is the scarce means according to which every person must allocate their time and actions within this world. Whenever we have to choose between two goods, it is precisely because our labor is scarce that we are unable to enjoy both.
The real question is whether specific people's labor is well coordinated with and adapted to specific people's demands within the market? ("Society" as such can never have too many or too few laborers since society is not a person with its own needs or wants to satisfy.) Such a discoordination within the market might be malevolent (you gave a great example of this) or merely incidental in nature (communication breakdown). The solution might be the "freeing up of markets" or it might require some type of state intervention. Either way, none of these questions should be replaced by the question of whether "society" has too many laborers or not. Such a question simply does not make sense....
At least that's what Austrians think.
Thanks @paradigms.lost. Labour itself should not be considered a scarce resource. But labour could temporarily become scarce within particular industries. This should only be temporary scarcity as labour will respond to market forces by acquiring the necessary skills or the relevant skilled labour will migrate to the places where there are shortages. Government intervention could artificially create scarcity by restricting this mobility.
I have not discussed this, but time can be considered scarce. There are only so many things we can do in a day, a week, or a month. We need to choose how we spend our time. Do we spend more hours working to earn more money. This money can be used to enhance our time which is not spent working. Do we find alternative activities that require less money, hence less time required to earn money. Do we spend more time upgrading our skills to get higher paid jobs so that we can earn more money in less time so that we have more time to enjoy the money we have earned. There are plenty of possibilities.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
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I'm still not sure that I'm following with regards to the optional scarcity of labor....
Are you saying:
I hope I don't come off as being too nit-picky or belligerent, but sometimes the devil is in the details. :)
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