The "scar" in scarcity

As someone who grew up in India in the '80's, I've first hand experienced a social phenomenon which I am sure a lot of Indians from the same era can relate to: I am referring to the scenario which occurred at pretty much every public place where there was a need to form a line or queue.
Be it a bus station where one needed to get a taxicab, board a train, or entering the stadias gates for catching a game, there would always be attempts to override the queue and rush to the front if not for policing by either the public themselves or by specifically assigned folks to ensure people "literally"stayed in line. I am, by no means whatsoever, demeaning the population or referring to this as only happening in particular regions of the world. I am merely attempting to delve deeper into the psychological aspects of this particular human behavior.
I did have to wait for long to get some out-of-the-box thoughts and insights into this - when it finally did come, it was from a coworker of my dad, a German national who was living in India then. His reasoning for this behavior was that people were afraid of being left out i.e. if they weren't at the front of the line, they would miss out on getting it eventually, for there as a possibility of it running out by the time their turn came around! A simple enough argument, but it made the most logical sense to me. Was scarcity the answer to people really behaving the way they were?
I do not have the credentials to provide any expert opinions on the human mind, but let's take this to be the case for a moment: would fear of not having a bus come by the same route for an hour afterwards force people to do what it takes to get in? Oh, yes. Would, in spite of holding a paid-for ticket, not guarantee a good view of the game? Yes, because, they aren't reserved seats! These examples I've taken could easily be argued upon as being the same in any other developed nation, but these are what they are - just examples! I could, in a moment's notice, come up with umpteen more cases but that's not the point. My case is that such a behavior could stay with an individual and be a part of him/her without even a conscious feeling of doing so. I have seen some Indians exhibit the same behavior when visiting a doctor's office in the US - the doctor isn't going away, but they are concerned anyway; so they want to be the first in line when the doctor's office opens and the secretary is taking in registrations.
For those that read this far, I am sure the title of this post is now self explanatory - it is the scar caused by the scarcity (or fear of it) that I hope is diminishing in the new India. With all the growth and prosperity the nation has experienced materialistically, I hope we can be richer psychologically as well. For, after all, this will be our true gift to the next generation of Indians!