What is the root cause of economic problems?

[philipma1957]

Rich people. I can definitely talk about people who are not responsible financially, sure if you are in big debt, maybe do not try to spend half of your income on a jewellery or a new phone etc, sure those people DO exists. But the reality is that, we are living in a world where business owners and CEO's make x300 more than they used to while the salaried workers do x5 at best.

It means, if the CEO of the same company, exact same company, in 1995, made X amount of money, they are now making 300x and the worker for the same position in 1995 made Y amount and now making 5Y amount.

rich people almost always want more then they need.

So they pull a lot of resources away from less greedy people

that is in general of the rich not all the rich.

[9ja Amaka]

I think the root problem of economic problem in Nigeria is the government and corruption. I think the cause of unemployment,  scarcity, inflation and underemployment are all from the corruption of the government. If the government is not corrupt they will be able to fix all this issues that you have mentioned,  but because of the corruption in government we are suffering all this things. The government of Nigeria are so corrupt that they don't care about the citizens,  but rather themselves.  They only think on how to enrich themselves and not bother on what is going on in the country, that's why we are facing all this issues in the country.

[ZAINmalik75]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

The options you have mentioned are all the symptoms not the root causes, and that distinction matters a lot if you really want to find the answer out.
If I had to choose, I would have picked scarcity. Because limited sources is the main problem, but with unlimited ones there would be no economic problems.

But the honest answer that is not on the list is miss allocation of resources combined with poor governance. Because source distribution is also important, poor management means a bad economy.

[abhiseshakana]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

The options you have mentioned are all the symptoms not the root causes, and that distinction matters a lot if you really want to find the answer out.
If I had to choose, I would have picked scarcity. Because limited sources is the main problem, but with unlimited ones there would be no economic problems.

But the honest answer that is not on the list is miss allocation of resources combined with poor governance. Because source distribution is also important, poor management means a bad economy.

After rethinking again the root cause of economic problem are combination of human nature and system's incentive which sometime give room for the dark side of human become dominant. As homo economicus, normally human has self interest, never satisfied, greed and can break morals when there are incentive. These human nature contributes in creating continuous crisis, social gap and economic inequality and human exploitation. I don't know it is an unpredictable result coincidence or intentional by system creator but now we clearly see that offering incentive from system can bring bad and good reactions. We see about labour and wages issue, many factory and companies  have exploitative image, what they did are evil and inhumane but if we dig deeper we found  that high competition force them to do extreme efficiency for business survival. Other example such as many young generation  seems to be materialistics and loose humble character not because they are bad people but matter of fact, social validation now depend on how thick their wallet and what they buy and wear. Do you notice that current incentive structure tends to reward speed, scale, and short term achievements rather than sustainability, morality, or social balance ? larger economic scale, technology and open information makes everything more real and touch our life.

[AmoreJaz]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

The options you have mentioned are all the symptoms not the root causes, and that distinction matters a lot if you really want to find the answer out.
If I had to choose, I would have picked scarcity. Because limited sources is the main problem, but with unlimited ones there would be no economic problems.

But the honest answer that is not on the list is miss allocation of resources combined with poor governance. Because source distribution is also important, poor management means a bad economy.

Scarcity of everything. So it means, scarcity of jobs or resources. Because an individual can uplift his economic status if he is able to provide his basic needs and other things by his resources, meaning income and other sources. Without source of living, these people will become a burden of the community and so with the country itself.

And with scarcity, education of an individual is in jeopardy as well. In my opinion, education is very important for the individual to uplift his economic status. Even if we say, he did not graduate in higher education but at least he had earned some technical skills - this will equip him to survive and embark life's challenges. Because without any knowledge at all won't give the person a fighting chance to survive. He has limited options so to speak.

[Accardo]

Scarcity of everything. So it means, scarcity of jobs or resources. Because an individual can uplift his economic status if he is able to provide his basic needs and other things by his resources, meaning income and other sources. Without source of living, these people will become a burden of the community and so with the country itself.

Job creation is everything a nation needs to grow its economy, also, Job executives need to come up with outstanding initiatives to generate more income from foreign investors. There is a wide range of competition in certain markets, which doesn't bring immerse growth to a nations economy, if only they can move to something perfectly fresh, there'll be fresh employment and mental development, the two major factor a nation must possess to grow at a rapid pace.

[blockman]

With the combination of all of it, come here to Philippines and you'll see that amidst this war. It is our country that has surged mostly with the cost of everything. The oil companies have their stock in their depots and yet, they're the first one to make 100%+ of the cause now which makes the inflation higher. They didn't even ordered yet that requires to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and they're the first one to increase. The root cause of it is corruption. 100%, we don't tolerate that and right now these law makers are focusing more with impeachment instead of handling this crisis, we're even the first country to have that declared we are in the state of energy emergency.

[r_victory]

The main root cause is corruption. Most nations have enough resources to meet the needs of their citizens. But few people who have access to political power have greedily converted national wealth to personal property. Unemployment, underemployment, and other economic problems are man-made. Most developing nations would become developed without corrupt leaders.

I agree. My country is an example of this; we have many natural resources, high food production, and substantial tax revenue. Unfortunately, none of this makes our country economically "healthy"; social inequalities are glaring, and the main cause of all this is corruption. Our Congress is investigating the embezzlement of R$ 6.3 billion (~$1.2 billion) from the bank accounts of retirees. Imagine working for decades and having your money stolen. Besides other scandals involving many powerful people.

Corruption has become structural and even cultural here... A phrase that bothers me and reflects this is when they say: "Let's do it the Brazilian way" (a Brazilian expression for circumventing the rules). This is terrible, and we are often viewed negatively abroad.

[slapper]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

The options you have mentioned are all the symptoms not the root causes, and that distinction matters a lot if you really want to find the answer out.
If I had to choose, I would have picked scarcity. Because limited sources is the main problem, but with unlimited ones there would be no economic problems.

But the honest answer that is not on the list is miss allocation of resources combined with poor governance. Because source distribution is also important, poor management means a bad economy.

After rethinking again the root cause of economic problem are combination of human nature and system's incentive which sometime give room for the dark side of human become dominant. As homo economicus, normally human has self interest, never satisfied, greed and can break morals when there are incentive. These human nature contributes in creating continuous crisis, social gap and economic inequality and human exploitation. I don't know it is an unpredictable result coincidence or intentional by system creator but now we clearly see that offering incentive from system can bring bad and good reactions. We see about labour and wages issue, many factory and companies  have exploitative image, what they did are evil and inhumane but if we dig deeper we found  that high competition force them to do extreme efficiency for business survival. Other example such as many young generation  seems to be materialistics and loose humble character not because they are bad people but matter of fact, social validation now depend on how thick their wallet and what they buy and wear. Do you notice that current incentive structure tends to reward speed, scale, and short term achievements rather than sustainability, morality, or social balance ? larger economic scale, technology and open information makes everything more real and touch our life.

You are taking human nature as a constant when really really it isn't. We cooperated. For a very long time in small groups we cooperated because defection had immediate visible cost. The greed isn't new. The scale is new. The invisibility is new.

We use "the system" as a means to avoid stating who exactly is making these decisions. Systems don't design themselves. Someone decided to use quarterly earnings as the measure. Someone chose that worker wages were a cost to minimize rather than a value to protect. These are choices made by certain humans that then stepped back and allowed the structure to receive the blame. Structurally that is how it works. But it also means individual agency isn't zero.

The materialism thing with younger generations ugh, this one is complicated. Because on one hand yes the environment is giving positive for visibility. On the other hand people have always wanting things and status and belonging. So whether the channel for getting that belonging is now more destructive than it used to be. I think it probably is.

And no single actor can afford to slow down unilaterally. Someone has to take the first loss of moving slower, and in a competitive system nobody steps up.

[junder]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

It’s hard to pinpoint the root cause, but it’s clear that economic problems arise from difficult circumstances, such as the job market, which leads to high unemployment.

This is the most common issue even in my own community there are quite a few young people who are unemployed. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t trying rather the scarcity of job opportunities is the real problem although there are also some young people who are simply being lazy.

Perhaps the root of the problem lies in the government’s poor performance in carrying out its duties.

[Zigabel]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

You cannot say there is an exact reason because all of the above can be seen as incorporated to the reasons to which there is some economic problems in the society currently. It if very important to know that all of the above are in a way or the other linked such that if there is adequate provision for employment, literally the rest will mostly be a solved case because we will record high productivity in the society which will in turn reduce all of these adverse effects of the others which brings about the economic situations we find around.

[silpersurfer]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

It’s hard to pinpoint the root cause, but it’s clear that economic problems arise from difficult circumstances, such as the job market, which leads to high unemployment.

This is the most common issue even in my own community there are quite a few young people who are unemployed. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t trying rather the scarcity of job opportunities is the real problem although there are also some young people who are simply being lazy.

Perhaps the root of the problem lies in the government’s poor performance in carrying out its duties.

The root cause of the problem depends on the conditions of your particular country or group/neighborhood, because there are different possibilities, such as lack of employment, laziness, poor governance, low knowledge or ability, there are so many factors that make why a neighborhood has economic root problems.
Economic problems will never end if the government cannot manage what the community needs, such as lack of jobs, people cannot work and get jobs that make them have economic problems.

[Satofan44]

rich people almost always want more then they need.

So they pull a lot of resources away from less greedy people

that is in general of the rich not all the rich.

Yeah and why should they not do this if they have the opportunity to do this? Often we hear generic advice telling people to seize opportunities when they come, even with something degenerate such as gambling. However, when more competent, more connected or more powerful people do this and increase their distance between us and themselves in the social ranking then many people start whining like little children. They want the extremely wealthy and powerful to act like saints when even the average person is very corrupt and would do a lot of shit if they could. 

It’s hard to pinpoint the root cause, but it’s clear that economic problems arise from difficult circumstances, such as the job market, which leads to high unemployment.

This is the most common issue even in my own community there are quite a few young people who are unemployed. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t trying rather the scarcity of job opportunities is the real problem although there are also some young people who are simply being lazy.

Perhaps the root of the problem lies in the government’s poor performance in carrying out its duties.

Don't study useless shit, get educated and skilled and you won't be unemployed. Many people who are unemployed are terrible people and they should stay unemployed. We should not give out jobs as if people were entitled to them. Actually what we have now is over-employment basically around the whole world. This is the reason for which you will occasionally find a very bad worker in just about any industry. Average people tend to blame everyone and everything except themselves for the shit that is going on in the world, when in fact most of them are responsible for it. An economy would function much better if its people were high skilled workers that do excellent work, and this is almost never the case. Most people do mediocre work at best.

[Finestream]

All of these can happen if you put wrong leaders in the government.

Economic problems may occur naturally, but it could be more worst than what we expected if we placed those corrupt officials in the government and let us seeing them taking advantage of their positions and steal the government taxes while leaving us struggling to make ends meet for our daily survival.

[Carl_DKJ]

What is the root cause of economic problems?

The correct answer is definitely **(B) Scarcity**.

While Unemployment and Inflation are serious economic "symptoms" or challenges, they aren't the root cause. The fundamental economic problem stems from the fact that human wants are infinite, but the resources available to satisfy those wants (land, labor, capital) are finite.

If there was no scarcity, we wouldn't need to make choices about allocation, and concepts like price, supply, and demand wouldn't even exist. Everything else—from inflation to underemployment—is a result of how societies try (and sometimes fail) to manage that basic gap between limited resources and unlimited needs.

[Johnlomape]

All of these can happen if you put wrong leaders in the government.

Economic problems may occur naturally, but it could be more worst than what we expected if we placed those corrupt officials in the government and let us seeing them taking advantage of their positions and steal the government taxes while leaving us struggling to make ends meet for our daily survival.

Corruption is the major causes of mismanagement of funds which van lead to economy problems and this is the problem the world is facing by we allowing bad leaders to become our leaders. If we continue to complain about bad governance and we ourselves as citizens are not fighting the corruption we called our leaders, this will create more problems and it will be very difficult for the average to have good jobs and enough money to settle thekr problems. Bad leadership will create financial burdens to us.

[Japinat]

Corruption, because when all the taxes are corrupted, when all the government budget funds are stolen, everything will just end up the worst. And all of these being listed  will just be visible after, seeing the citizens welfare totally compromised.

I know this because this is obviously what's happening in our current government. Its like we had the worst president ever, and all we can do is to wait for the next election so he can be replaced, and by then he can be sanctioned of all his mismanagement and corruption practices.

[Makus]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

All these are problems but inflation has to be the root cause of economic problems, the economy keeps on crumbling when the prices of goods gets extremely high and one set of people I would blame for the current economic problem in my country are the leaders, if the country has systems that were working the government would do something that would be able to tackle the problem the economy has but they don't seem to care about it. We are currently going through an inflation at the moment and things are extremely expensive but yet the leaders seem reluctant about doing something.

[@ICON$]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

Scarcity would be a better option

But here is the catch, the root problem is not just scarcity alone  it also has connection to the imbalance between human desire and humandiscipline. Most people want everything for them self alone but then again the systems are built by humans who compete, accumulate and control access to resources there by creating both imaginary and real Scarcity.

[Marykeller]

What is the root cause of economic problems?
Options:
(A) Unemployment
(B) Scarcity
(C) Inflation
(D) Underemployment

If the government is performing its duties as it ought to, all these economic problems you mentioned would not have as much effect on a country.

I like the way some posters before me have pointed out or recognized the economic problems to be from the government because if the top that controls the helm of affairs of the country is performing its duties, the economic problems won't continue to be an issue to resolve in a country.