Word: scarcer
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...transition to a future of scarcer energy is being made all the more painful by the manic, contradictory signals emanating from the Administration about fuel prospects. If the nation is in a state of indiscipline and division, it is probably not because of defective character so much as an immense bewilderment about the real dangers of the energy shortage...
...example, Germany with a rate of 2.7% and Switzerland with 1.7%. Austria, the Benelux countries and even Britain have also done better than France lately. Although designed to keep prices down, controls actually lift them by eliminating competition, in effect turning all industries into cartels. Discount stores are far scarcer in France than in West Germany or the U.S. Since businessmen know that the government will usually give in to demands for price rises, companies have little incentive to gain an edge by keeping costs, especially wages, under control...
...these attitudes are changing. As the cost of the fertilizers needed to boost yields for such crops soars prohibitively, and as other resources become scarcer, experts have pressed the search for cheaper, easier-to-raise alternatives. In this hunt, many other plants are being rediscovered. Among them: the Mexican leucaena tree (as a forage for cattle), the jojoba bean (for its oil) and the Southwest's weedlike guayule (as a source of natural rubber...
Since 1975, the nation's herd has shrunk from 132 million to 116 million head, a seven-year low. Cattlemen are now holding their breeders back from markets to rebuild their stock. As a result, beef is becoming scarcer, and this summer the price of hamburger-quality meat is expected to go up by 15% to 20%. Steak cuts may climb...
Europeans, who have scarcer resources and a long tradition of scrimping, have done predictably better than Americans in cutting back fuel use lately. But the chase after more is the inevitable expression of an American character that had crystallized by the time politicians began speaking of inhabitants more often as consumers than as citizens. This character will not be changed by preaching. So what could induce Americans to transform their nature and begin seriously conserving energy...