Untitled Document

Marcos Castillo
Argument Essay
August 14, 2014
Scarcity Essay

Scarcity is an importance in every daily life. Everyone runs on scarcity depending on the

situation the person is in. The person can be scarcity of time, money, or financially. Although we all think we have an abundance of time when that’s not the case. Scarcity keeps the mind running, “towards unfulfilled needs” (Mullainathan, Shafir 7). It changes the whole idea of our minds, it changes the wants from the needs; it can be very brutal aspect of our minds.
Our behaviors can explain a lot of our struggle, but it can also show the reality of scarcity. The reality is having very little, is being unhappy. Being unhappy is having the dissatisfaction and struggle. For example, there was a time when I wanted a gaming system. All of my friends had it besides me; I was unhappy because I wanted it really bad. It changed my mood I was angry most of the time and always thought in a negative saying I would never get it. It plays with your mind changing the way you think it shows how sometimes scarcity has control.

Tunneling is the worst thing that can occur to someone. Tunneling can be a bad habit of

someone. When someone procrastinates on something and think they have an abundance of time and realize that they don’t. This leads to tunneling, they block all other responsibilities and focuses on one single subject. This makes the person struggle and stresses about how they have a lot of work to catch up on.

Tunneling can also make the persons mind focus more effectively. For example, when I

had to do a five page research paper I had a week to complete the assignment. I decided to do the paper the day before it was due. I started to work on the paper and realize that ideas came to me more efficiently then when I did it the day it was assign. With that comes juggling and slack, it has its negative effects.

Juggling is very common and people tend to do it every day. When people juggle they

tend to tunnel on one assignment and forget the other assignments due then next week. Why?
Because they fail to manage their time, one single mistake and they tunnel through every list they had plan for that day. “When you juggle, you tunnel on the balls that are about to drop, and you neglect those high in the air” (Mullainathan, Shafir 128). That’s when a person commits a mistake, they forget about the other assignment because they were focus on the one that was already due the next day.
People need to stop procrastinating and manage their time if they do not want to fall into tunneling. There are some vigilance that can be repeated but for the most part as in repeating to leave assignments until the last minute should be stopped. We all have mental capacity in other words bandwidth. Bandwidth is what leads to tunneling, tax tunneling from there comes juggling and slack and so on. Bandwidth is what affects our behaviors, and the poor has shortage of money. Scarcity of money is what drives that motive to want more, the poor have slack while the rich have less slack.

In conclusion, scarcity changes our aspects of our behavioral. It sometime triggers

something positive or negative. The key is finding a way to manage our time more sufficiently

and not fall into tunneling. Tax tunneling is where we want to fall; having more slack is what we try to aim for. People think they have an abundance of time when that’s not the case. We have shortage of time we just don’t see it, we tunnel at the last minute because thinking we have an abundance of time.

Work Cited
Mullainathan, Sendhil and Shafir, Eldar. “Scarcity, Why Having Too Little Means So Much.”
New York. Hnery Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright 2013. Print.

Cited: Mullainathan, Sendhil and Shafir, Eldar. “Scarcity, Why Having Too Little Means So Much.”  New York. Hnery Holt and Company, LLC.  Copyright 2013. Print.