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Originally Posted by Michael Chui  In other words, scarcity mindset is best when no one else is around? Sounds fine to me. |
Okay, not the conclusion I was hoping you would reach, but I'll take responsibility and blame my poor example. Here's another one that supports multiple players. How about considering world oil reserves? My personal belief is that the amount of oil on earth is for all intents and purposes “fixed”. The Scarcity Mindset might make the argument that the reserves are limited, that we have already reached "Peak Oil" where maximum production has been reached, demand will start exceeding supply resulting in the end of days for cheap oil, yada yada yada. By adopting a Scarcity Mindset outlook toward oil, one might look for ways to conserve oil, search for alternate forms of energy, etc.
The Abundance Mindset toward world oil reserves might embrace the argument that reserves could actually be much greater than what is know of today, maybe as much as three trillion additional barrels more (roughly three times more than what we currently know of), and that through improved technology, we’ll be able to extract more of that oil than we could with today’s technology, all of which means we won’t use up all the oil there is on earth (based on 2004 rate of consumption of 82.5 million barrels per day) for about 135 years (instead of 30-35 yrs based on today’s known reserves), which would be longer than we’re likely to live. Abundance Mindset might argue that we can and should go on consuming like we always have. But eventually, doesn’t the Scarcity Mindset have to kick in with respect to oil, maybe not for you and me, but for our children or for their children?
I’m not trying to say that a Scarcity Mindset is a "better" frame of reference, just that there are situations where it may be useful.