By Harry Palmer     From Inside Avatar Volume 2, Issue 4 - July / August 1996

In order to say that there is a strictly limited amount of something (a scarcity), a few conditions have to be met.

First, we have to know where all the something is so that no further quantities can be discovered. This means scouring all known locations and taking a very exact inventory. Laws need to be passed and enforced against anyone hiding or not reporting any amount of something. All backs-of-drawers, chair cushions and bottoms of jars need to be inspected
thoroughly to ensure that something has not been overlooked by accident. This should be an all hands, thoroughly supervised activity, with roll calls, so that no one who has something is left out by illness or not being notified that an inventory is in progress. We don't want someone to show up later with an unaccounted-for-amount of something.

To ensure that no one stumbles on a new supply by accident, we should forbid any future exploration - especially exploration of space. Who knows how much something is hanging around out in space? Also, because the something might be offered in trade by a new visitor, we should forbid any contact with any life forms whose quantity of the something is not accounted for in our original inventory.

Next, we have to make sure that no one can create any new qualities of the something. This is very important. People who would combine odd bits and pieces to make more something need to be regulated into overwhelm. Formulas for making something must be destroyed along
with any parallel research that might directly or indirectly discover new ways of making something. We may have to regulate broadly, because we certainly don't want something showing up as a by-product of something else.

In short, this entire subject of creation of more something must be closely monitored if we are to preserve our scarcity of something. Underground supplies of something must be traced back to their sources and taxed into nonproduction. Any black market supplies should be confiscated and destroyed. Remember, an unregulated supply of something is a threat to scarcity. This fundamental truth must be impressed upon the general public.

To further protect our scarcity of something, we must make sure that something is totally inert. We can accomplish this with a program of radiation and preservatives that extend not only to something, but to anything that might decay or evolve into something.

We don't want changing substances converting anything into something or absorbing or expanding or transforming or crystallizing or growing something in any way. Growing! What a threat to scarcity. Anyone growing something, breeding, spawning or engaging in other subversive multiplication activities, including cloning or encouraging hermaphroditic
division, must immediately be reeducated in the laws of scarcity.

These conditions will preserve the supply-side scarcity of something, but that is only half the battle. We must ensure that the demand for some-thing remains well above any available supply. The best insurance for demand is legislation. Pass strict laws that require everyone to have something or face stiff penalties. Set the amount of something that a person must have slightly above what is easily obtainable. This ensures scarcity.

In laissez-faire societies, scarcity will have to be preserved by highly effective marketing and education. People must get the message that they not only need something, but will be incomplete without it. People who are unable to afford something should be relegated to the fringes of society.

It will take every one of us to preserve scarcity, but we can do it. We must dream, think and speak only with the greatest respect for the limitations that preserve our scarcity. Scarcity has natural enemies that we must hold in check. We must be willing to roll up our sleeves and open our pocketbooks to defend against any threats to scarcity.

If we do our work well and teach our children properly, by the God-of-limited willing, our children will enjoy the same scarcity that we have created for ourselves.