Money for The Rest of Us

Investment help and financial guidance for the rest of us.

  • Podcast
  • Guides
        • Asset Classes

        • A Complete Guide to Investing in I Bonds and TIPS (2025)
        • A Complete Guide to Equity REIT Investing
        • A Complete Guide to Mortgage REIT Investing
        • A Complete Guide to Investing in Gold
        • A Complete Guide To Investing In Convertible Bonds
        • Investing in Bitcoin, Oil, and Volatility ETFs
        • Carbon Investing and its Effect on Climate Change
        • Farmland Investing
        • The Opportunity and Risk of Frontier Markets
        • Investment Vehicles

        • A Complete Guide to Investment Vehicles
        • How to Invest in Closed-End Funds
        • What Are SPACs and Should You Invest in Them?
        • Money and Economics

        • A Complete Guide to Understanding and Protecting Against Inflation
        • Understanding Web3 Investing
        • Strategy

        • Why You Should Rebalance Your Portfolio
        • What Is Risk vs Uncertainty?
        • Tail Events and Tail Risk
  • Resources
        • General Resources

        • Topic Index
        • Glossary
        • Most Influential Books
        • Member Tools

        • Member - Getting Started Guide
        • Asset Allocation and Portfolio Tools
        • Current Investment Strategy Report
        • All Investment Conditions Reports
        • Strategic and Adaptive Model Portfolios
        • Member Tools and Downloads
        • Member Resources

        • Plus Premium Episodes
        • Submit A Question to the Plus Podcast
        • Member Forums
        • David’s Current Portfolio
        • David's Portfolio Trades
        • Courses

        • Investing in Closed-End Funds
  • Members
  • Join
  • Log In
You are here: Home / Podcast / 192: Is Anything Scarce Anymore?

192: Is Anything Scarce Anymore?

February 14, 2018 by David Stein · Updated May 3, 2021

In this episode we explore scarcity. Artificial scarcity created by laws and real scarcity created by our evolving lifestyles and economy. We’ll see that most physical products, with drinking water being an exception, are becoming less scarce while trust and attention are becoming more scarce.

We will also review why net neutrality is so important.

Photo by Hugo Chinaglia

In this episode you’ll learn:

  • How intellectual properties rights enforce artificial scarcity
  • How intangible assets have spillover effects that circumvent intellectual property rights.
  • How attention and trust are scarce and why businesses need to give away things for free to gain trust and attention.
  • How blue pigment illustrates why goods become cheaper over time. Why services are less likely to fall in price. .
  • How net neutrality is important to gaining trust and attention.

Show Notes

FCC statement on availability of local television stations

IP in a World Without Scarcity – Mark A. Lemley

Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts by Ryan Holiday

Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age by Cory Doctorow

Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake

Trust and attention, the endless dance – Seth Godin

Capitalists Arise!: End Economic Inequality, Grow the Middle Class, Heal the Nation by Peter Georgescu and Dave Dorsey

The Secrets Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water – like Cape Town – BBC

Become a Better Investor With Our Investing Checklist

Become a Better Investor With Our Investing Checklist

Master successful investing with our Checklist and get expert weekly insights to help you build your wealth with confidence.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Episode Summary – Is Anything Scarce Anymore?

Scarce goods and services have been a topic of debate since the original intellectual property (IP) laws were created. Products are getting cheaper to produce, but high-quality services are still in demand. On this episode of Money For the Rest of Us, David tackles the issue of scarcity with clear explanations and timely resources that are sure to help you understand this complex idea. You don’t want to miss his insights, so be sure to listen to this episode.

The history of economics, scarcity, and why intellectual property laws are outdated
David explains on this episode that the original purpose for IP laws was to ensure people would continue to create quality ideas and content. While these laws worked in theory, they created a level of artificial scarcity. Mark Lemley of Stanford Law, explains that “IP rights are designed to artificially replicate scarcity where it would not otherwise exist. In its simplest form, IP law takes public goods that would otherwise be available to all and artificially restricts their distribution. It makes ideas scarce because then we can bring them into the economy and charge for them, and economics knows how to deal with scarce things.” While certain protections should be given to creators, scarcity needs to occur in an organic way in order for it to be effective. David illuminates this concept through the lens of TED talks and conferences. TED is able to publish all of their talks online – with full audio, video, and transcripts – because tickets to the physical conference cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.

How free content can still be turned into a money-making venture
David features Cory Doctorow’s work on scarcity on this episode, and quotes him as saying “Although it’s hard to turn fame into money in the arts, it’s impossible to turn obscurity into money in the arts.” Essentially, even if a creator produces exceptional content, no one will know about it if they’re 100% obscure and protected. Technically speaking, this aversion to positive externalities permits the creator to live in fear of someone benefiting from their work for free. Without digital and word-of-mouth exposure, you won’t make money – period. Thus, the free content you produce and distribute can drive interested parties towards your other content, such as books or fee-for-service courses. There will always be paying customers for quality work, even if you have to get them to the door with free content.
What elements are actually scarce in the 21st-century marketplace?

While physical goods and products aren’t as scarce as they once were, scarcity is still widely prevalent in intangible elements such as trust, attention, and time. David features Seth Godin’s work on this episode of Money For the Rest of Us as he explains, “Trust is scarce because it’s not a simple instinct and it’s incredibly fragile, disappearing often in the face of greed, shortcuts or ignorance. And attention is scarce because it doesn’t scale. We can’t do more than one thing at a time, and the number of organizations and ideas that are competing for our attention grows daily.”

The connections between automation, scarcity, and value in today’s society

It’s much easier to automate a vehicle assembly line than it is teaching a child to read. This simple idea of product versus service connects to the broader idea of scarcity because even though it’s much easier to produce goods efficiently and cheaply, most services could never attain that level of automation. David explains that for each episode of Money For the Rest of Us, he spends 8 to 10 hours in pre-production, recording, and post-production work. For as long as he’s been podcasting, this timeframe has not considerably shrunk. This is because quality services and products that require human creativity cannot be automated. Scarcity is found in these areas, and it’s not going anywhere. The solution to true scarcity is simple: create something unique, it will earn attention and trust organically, and that’s how you grow your customer base and build a business in the 21st century.

Episode Chronology

[0:11] David introduces the topic for this episode, “Is anything scarce anymore?”
[3:30] The history of economics and scarcity viewed through a TED talk lens
[6:01] How “free stuff” can still be turned into a money-making venture
[8:07] What elements are actually scarce in today’s market
[10:43] Why there’s always an audience that’s willing to pay for quality content
[13:20] How automation is determining scarcity and value in today’s society
[21:08] The true scarce physical item – drinking water
[22:30] The delicate dance between trust and attention
[24:19] Net neutrality as it relates to scarcity

Ready to get serious about your investing?

Access professional-grade portfolio tools, training, and a community to help you stay on track, tune out the noise, and grow your wealth with confidence.

Learn How

Transcript

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: net neutrality, scarcity

Contact | Team | Topic Index


Darby Creek Advisors LLC
P.O. Box 68544 • Tucson, AZ • 85737

Copyright © 2025 • Disclosures, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy • Site by Tempora

Manage Cookie Consent

We use cookies to optimize our website, marketing, and services. 

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website, marketing, and services. We never sell users' data.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}