Introduction
Wishes and Rainbows is a children’s comic storybook. This book talks about a town, Colorland, that in its entire existence has not seen anything of color and when flowers are introduced to there, the whole town is overwhelmed. The book is essentially designed to stimulate the imagination of the students as they continue with their exploration of economic problems such as scarce resources, different allocation methods and the society’s reaction in alleviating such problems.
Question 1
The concept of scarcity is illustrated very well in the story. Scarcity can be defined as a situation where there is a deficiency of something that people want. In such a situation, the little that is available is highly desired by everyone. Wishes and rainbows illustrate the scarcity concept because initially, color is not available at all in the town. When a little color is introduced everyone wants some. Unfortunately, there is not enough for everybody in spite of the fact that everybody wants some. In my personal life experience; I have also witnessed other forms of scarcity like that described in Wishes and Rainbows. For example, here in our country, there is a shortage of resources such as natural gas, oil and even right here in our town, we sometimes experience shortage of clean water. In such a situation, the people are forced to significantly alter some of their life choices so that they can accommodate make use of the little that is available.
Question 2
It is well known that opportunity costs actually represent the forgone alternatives value. In the example above, I gave example of scarce resources such as clean water. The scarcity of such an essential resource influences people to make decisions and choices regarding the use and exploitation of such scarce resources, for example, people have to decide how to economize the little clean water that is available by giving priority to the most important uses. The choice or decision made is essentially an opportunity cost. This choice that gives rise to an opportunity cost is necessitated because the society will always tend to be desire and want more than is relatively available of something.
Works Cited
Devaux, Stephen, and Adam Redjinski. Wishes & rainbows. Boston: Public Services Dept., Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1981. Print.
