Because it is not true.

Scarcity can absolutely be artificially created. Just look at the diamond industry. But I suspect that is not the kind of scarcity this meme is referring to.

There is a reason the 1% exists, and scarcity is certainly part of the equation. We live on a planet with finite resources, and there are people who seek to accumulate and hoard those resources, along with the wealth and power that come with controlling them.

However, the 60-hour workweek referenced in this meme is not an inevitable consequence of scarcity. It is a consequence of how our economic system prioritizes corporate profits, investor returns, and perpetual growth over the well-being of workers.

A company can be profitable and still be considered a failure if it does not generate enough profit to satisfy investors. Revenue growth is not enough. Profit margins must increase. Returns must keep climbing. And when the pursuit of ever-increasing profits takes precedence over everything else, workers are expected to sacrifice more of their time and energy to sustain it.

That is the real rot: an economic system that treats the failure to maximize profits as though it were the same thing as losing money.

Scarcity is real, but it does not explain or justify every form of inequality. The concentration of wealth and power is also a consequence of who controls resources, how ownership is structured, and what our economic institutions reward.

Until we address both the limits of our finite resources and the systems that allow wealth and power to become increasingly concentrated, we will continue to see extreme inequality. The problem is not simply that there isn't enough to go around. It's also that the people who control the most are incentivized to keep accumulating more.