Nobody asked but …
It seems to me that there are 3 kinds of scarcity: 1) natural, 2) monopolistic, and 3) creative. The first and third are conducive to free markets. The second can produce horrors.
Natural scarcity arises from natural phenomena such as dispersion (difficulty of collection) or concentration (ease of control). The second case may often lead to monopolistic scarcity.
An egregious example of monopolistic scarcity arose under King Leopold II of Belgium wherein he enslaved an entire region of Africa, the Congo. This was a corruption of capitalism and imperialism. Most other examples are those of statist communism/socialism.
The third category presents the example of Disneyland. Private resources were gathered and developed so that a new category of human want was created.
With the purported discovery of water on Mars, it will be informative to see which market dynamic will apply. Also, we must consider whether it is ethical to take from Mars, according to voluntaryist principles.
— Kilgore Forelle
