The sun provides us with an abundance of energy. We just need to harvest it more intelligently, the writer says. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP)
Positive news is not great for selling newspapers or attracting large audiences.
Much attention is given to news that is all doom and gloom. There is a saying in the media that if it bleeds it leads.
The reason can be found in how humans have evolved over many years. When faced with danger, ancient people living in the forest or in the savannas of Africa had to react quickly to survive, be it fight or flight.
Not reacting to good news resulted in no harm or insignificant consequences.
But negative news may have led to an individual getting wiped out of the gene pool if no action was taken.
Little wonder that people evolved over the years to react more to negative news than to good.
1. Knowledge in abundance
The reality today is that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
That is a fact if you look at all the access we have to knowledge today owing to the internet and all the latest technological advances. It places us in a better position to advance ourselves than we have ever been able to do.
The most important asset one could ever possess is knowledge.
In the last two decades the birth of the internet and related industries have brought an exponential benefit of abundance to humanity. For a man without an income and a job this may sound hollow. To those people, hold onto what Zig Ziglar stated: “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”
2. Changing mindset
To create the mindset of abundance, the first thing one needs to do is to take away the fear of failure. It is important to get away from a mindset of scarcity. We have been indoctrinated to believe everything is scarce, but that is not actually true. Historically, everything in economics revolved around the concept that every input in an economic system is scarce – labour, capital, and all resources – and therefore one must optimise the scarcity of all the inputs that need to go into production. Scarcity refers to resources being finite and limited.
It means there is a constant opportunity cost involved in making economic decisions.
Scarcity is one of the fundamental issues in economics. Many wars were and are still fought over scarce resources, and sometimes a small section of land with very little natural resources can be the cause of decades of bloodshed and raging wars.
3. Land and water scarcity
There is a shortage of fertile land for populations to grow food. For example, the desertification of the Sahara is causing a decline in land useful for farming in Sub-Saharan African countries.
However, consider the following: over time, the South African government has amassed more than two million hectares of land that have never been released to beneficiaries with title deeds or long-term tradable leases.
These now mostly under-utilised or outright failed farm enterprises of government-owned farms were acquired through the proactive land acquisition strategy and sit in the government’s landholding account.
The Ngonyama Trust is a corporate entity established by the KwaZulu legislative assembly as a repository for the communal land of the Zulu nation with the king as the sole trustee. The trust owns 29.7% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal, equivalent to 28 000 square kilometres. According to FNB, “urbanisation reduced the average stand size in SA’s urban areas by almost half over the past 40 years, to the current 552 square metres”. It is therefore possible to conclude that this vast area could be transformed to home erven for over 50 000 families.
Global warming and changing weather has caused some parts of the world to become drier and rivers to dry up. This has led to a shortage of drinking water for both humans and animals. The question we should ask ourselves, is water really this scarce? Approximately 71% of the earth's surface is covered by water. The oceans and seas account for 97% of this water. Israel has developed innovative solutions to address its water challenges. The most significant of these are desalination and wastewater reuse. The production of Israel’s five main desalination plants was estimated at 585 million cubic meters per year in 2021, equating to 50% of all of Israel’s potable water. This amount is set to increase significantly as water demand rises.
4. Labour shortages
In the post-war period, the UK experienced labour shortages – insufficient workers to fill jobs, such as bus drivers. In more recent years, shortages have been focused on skilled areas, such as nursing, doctors and engineers. According to a PWC report “skilled jobs account for a notable 25% of all employment in the South African economy. As of 2023 Q1, the country had 4.1 million skilled, 7.5 million semiskilled and 4.6 million unskilled workers.”
The labour force participation rate in South Africa increased to 60.7% in the first quarter of 2024 from 60% in the fourth quarter of 2023. It averaged 57.4% from 2001 until 2024, reaching an all-time high of 60.8 percent in the first quarter of 2001 and a record low of 47.30 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
5. Health care shortages
In any health care system, there are limits on the available supply of doctors and hospital beds. This causes waiting lists for certain operations. South Africa has embarked on the National Health Insurance path with the aim to create a better, more inclusive and morally fairer system. This will take several years to implement but any journey begins with the first step.
6. Infrastructure scarcity
Many city centres experience congestion – there is a shortage of road space compared with the number of road users. There is a scarcity of available land to build new roads or railways in certain countries. South Africa’s total road network is estimated at 750 000 kilometres, the longest of any African country and the tenth longest in the world. According to the South African National Roads Agency, the network is valued at more than R2.1 trillion.
7. Demand for energy
In the short-term, demand is price inelastic. People with petrol-driven cars need to keep buying petrol. However, over time, people may buy electric cars or bicycles; therefore, the demand for petrol falls.
Demand is more price elastic over time. The current outlook for platinum is a good example, whilst the price of coal is still to feel the full impact of its projected demand. We associate scarcity with high prices.
In South Africa the price of electricity is going through the roof.
Yet the sun provides us with an abundance of energy. We just need to harvest it more intelligently.
The process has started. It would be interesting to see the price of electricity relative to other goods in 50 years from now. One thing is for certain, it will be a fraction of what it is today on a relative basis.
Corrie Kruger is an independent analyst.
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