“No complaint… is more common than that of a scarcity of money.”
– Adam Smith
Though most of us tend to forget that we’re not alone when we’re stuck in this dilemma (“Why am I the only one of my friends who is always broke?”), Adam Smith, an 18th century economist and philosopher assures us that everybody who has ever had money has had money problems (and of course, those who have absolutely no money to speak of, probably have other problems).
Much like woes about anything else, broke periods always seem much more catastrophic than they seem. However, at least in the case of these momentary lapses of money scarcity, most people are able to turn it around once they land a few pay cheques, because, if we are to listen to Adam Smith’s almost-contemporary Sir Isaac Newton, “What comes up must come down.”