What is it about scarcity that frightens so many of us?
Most of us have never known real want. Once I was in a place where I had no more money until payday and just enough food to make it through. Then the dog ate my meal and I was devastated, but I wasn't really hungry.
Yet, one of the most effective ways to get people to buy something is apparently to tell them it is the last one, or one of the last. Suddenly the need increases as we try to figure out if we can live without this item. (Even if we had never thought about it until ten minutes ago.)
One of a kind! The flip side of a last chance sale. In this case the object is so rare that is might be priceless (or actually worthless.)
It might be a biological thing. If this is the last cup of water then it truly is precious and might be the difference between life and death, but most of us don't face that.
I see people who collect things, buy object after object. Not because they love each one so much that it gives them pleasure just to look at it, but because they might not have the entire collection in the end. And what happens in the end? Usually they die and someone sells their stuff at a garage sale, or gives it to Goodwill, or packs it away and forgets it is even there.
I try not to buy because of scarcity. Instead I try to surround myself with only things I really love. Things that give me a sense of well being and pleasure when I look at them, or use them. And I do use them. I eat on the good dishes, wear my favorite coat, dry off with towels I love.
You don't have to have a lot to enjoy life if you do this.
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