What are scarce resources?

Scarce resources are things we want but don’t have enough of to go around.

Imagine you and your friends are playing with a bag of toys, but there are only 5 toys, and 10 of you. That’s what scarce resources feel like, you all want the same thing, but there's not enough for everyone. You might have to take turns or decide who gets which toy.

Sometimes things become scarce because they’re hard to find. Like if your family only has one cookie, and it’s the last one in the jar, that cookie is a scarce resource now! Everyone wants it, but there's only one.

Other times, something becomes scarce because too many people use it at once. Think of a slide at the park: when everyone wants to go down it at the same time, no one gets to play for long, the slide is like a scarce resource during rush hour!

Scarce resources can be things we need every day, like water or food, or they could be fun stuff like toys or cookies. The key is that there's not enough of them to go around, and that’s what makes them special!