Money, land, materials, and energy are never enough for every want. Scarcity is what turns a need into a market rather than a given: air is a need but not a business. It is also what makes timing central — most financial instruments exist because someone needs something before they can afford it.
70 frictions in this map are rooted here.
Its neighbourhood
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Infancy
Childhood
- Which school you get depends on where you live
- The most expensive years are far off but must be paid for early
- The child outgrows clothes and shoes faster than they wear out
- The child develops differently and the system is not built for it
- Practices, games, and gear consume the family calendar and budget
Adolescence
Early adulthood
- The credential costs more than the student has
- Debt that arrives before the income does
- Get a job without having had one
- Lose the parents' health coverage before earning your own
- Manage income, taxes, and bills for the first time
- House yourself without parents and without savings
- Strangers sharing bills, chores, and a fridge
- No history, so no one will lend
- Revolving credit compounds against the borrower
- The courier has no employer
- Get to work without a parent's car
- Drinking costs health, money, and control
Household formation
Parenthood
- A hospital birth is a five-figure invoice
- The home that fit two does not fit three
- Children need hours that careers also need
- Years out of work are punished for decades
- A child costs a house over eighteen years
- Teach a child what money is before it costs them
- Feed four or five people on a budget, every day
- One income now runs two homes
Midlife
Late career
- Skills age and employers prefer the young
- Will the money last as long as the life
- The product that solves lifespan risk is opaque and expensive
- Stop working before public health coverage begins
- Parents need care and money you may not have
- Estate vehicles are complex enough to need permanent professionals
Retirement
- Money must arrive every month without a job
- The house that was the inheritance goes to the lender
- The money may run out before the life does
- Withdrawals are taxed and forced
- The body costs more each year
- The public plan does not cover everything
- Pets get sick and vets are expensive
- Eat well on a fixed income, often alone
- Millions of driving jobs disappear