While we are agreed that the prevalent system of State capitalism depends on the maintenance of artificial scarcity, there seems to be some lack of clarity about the ways in which this is achieved. Specifically there are questions over whether the result of artificial scarcity is an increase or a decrease in industrial output.
It would seem obvious, absent other factors, that the way to create scarcity is to withhold output. In many cases this is however not so: the creation of scarcity depends on a significant increase in output.
The variable factors are the choice of technique and the role of the State in maintaining conditions under which certain technical options are viable. The techniques of mass production are both model-specific and capital-intensive, and therefore offer an advantage over artisanal or other techniques only when the rate of output is sufficient to cover the costs involved. That is, if the saving on unit cost multiplied by the number of units produced within a given time exceeds the costs specific to the technique: the so-called economies of scale.
Source..........
http://theintelhub.com/2013/01/31/manufacturing-scarcity/
Subject: Manufacturing Scarcity 
Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:43 pm
