Question

when economists say goods are scarce, they mean:
a. the desire for goods and services exceeds our ability to produce them with the limited resources available.
b. goods are generally freely available from nature in most countries.
c. consumers are unwilling to buy goods unless they have very low prices.
d. consumers are too poor to afford the goods and services available.

Explanation:

Scarcity is a core concept in economics, referring to the fundamental condition where human wants for goods and services are unlimited, but the resources used to produce them (like labor, land, capital) are limited. Option b is incorrect because freely available natural goods are not scarce by economic definition. Option c relates to demand sensitivity to price, not scarcity. Option d refers to poverty, not the broader economic idea of scarcity which applies to all societies regardless of wealth levels.

Answer:

a. the desire for goods and services exceeds our ability to produce them with the limited resources available.