Scarce and expensive skilled labour is often a spur to invention.
稀缺而价格昂贵的技术劳动常常是发明创造的推动力量。U. S. intelligence officials believe water scarcity is shaping up to be one of the main potential drivers of future global conflict.
美国情报官员认为，水源稀缺将形成未来全球冲突的一个主要潜在导火索。Though crisps, sweets and doughnuts are easy to come by, an apple is a rare commodity .
虽然炸薯片，糖果和油炸面圈饼很容易得到，但是苹果确实稀缺的农产品。The delight of the children at the sight of some dish on the table showed that it was a scarcity.
孩子们一看到桌子上的菜时的喜悦表明，那是一种稀缺。Right now he is focused on trying to shift dirty, low-wage manufacturing out of Guangzhou to the countryside, where jobs are still scarce.
汪洋目前的重点是把肮脏的、低工资的制造业从广州转移到就业机会仍然稀缺的农村。And yet, there is one context in which economists talk about job scarcity in the same terms as an ordinary layman guilty of make-work bias.
然而，存在一个场合，在这里经济学家与犯有“造作工作成见”罪的普通门外汉从同一角度谈论岗位稀缺。The word is externalities, a concept that holds that money is not the only scarcity in the world.
这便是“外部性”，该概念告诉我们，货币并非世界上唯一的稀缺性。If infinite quantities of every good could be produced, people would not worry about the efficient use of scarce resources.
如果人们能够无限多生产每一种商品，就不会担心稀缺资源的有效运用问题。In the long run, at least, higher prices should trigger supply increases, and see scarce resources used more efficiently.
至少从长期而言，价格上涨应会导致供应增加，同时稀缺资源得到更为有效的利用。