Limitation and Unlimitation
"The limited and the limitless are negotiated by creativity"
Economics is based on the study of unlimited wants and limited resources. However not all wants are unlimited and not all resources are of the nature of limitation. In fact many of our resources are effectively infinite given their circular recyclable and unbreakable characteristics. In a world where endless growth is seen as an objective goal by many, simultaneously many subscribe to the confining attributes of traditional economic theory domains and phenomena which find graceful landing outside the scope and purview of one quadrant of limitation and unlimitation.
Economics is historically the study of Unlimited wants with limited resources. However, not all wants are unlimited and not all resources are limited. In other words, there are plenty of phenomena that defy traditional categorization. And for these we must look to Satisologie.
By and large we can consider four distinct categories, and in each case we can consider whether something is limited or unlimited. There are many resources which exhibit both limited and unlimited behavior. For example water, oxygen, arable land all have an absolute limit on the exact number of molecules or square inches presently available, but in another sense they are unlimited and that their reuse goes on forever and is unimpeded.
In general, all four categories can be applied to various domains and disciplines. We can see which categories are more limiting and which categories are more prosperous. From there we can decide if a move between categories is in order, and how to enact such a move.
Take a dive into our forexample: water we drink and bathe and cook with. Well the absolute quantity of water on our planet could be measured, it would be exceedingly difficult to do so to a great degree of precision, for much of what we consider to be water actually comes in many different forms. The one percent humidity in the night air of the desert, or the salt laden waves of the Great oceans, portions such as this all play a part in the global quantity of water, but because the hydrologic cycle as endless even a little bit of water effectively becomes an infinitely reusable resource.
This is not to say that communities do not experience drought, on the contrary, due to the seemingly paradoxical availability and supply of water: infinite and finite, clean drinking water is becoming more rare and precious by the year. It seems as though although we can conceptually understand that water is infinite under certain conditions, it is more expedient and more immediately and economically lucrative to exploit water as a limited commodity, destined to run out, subject to price increases, and subservient to market forces that took silver off the silver standard, gold off the gold standard, and now water off the water standard.
The truth is actually that the destiny of water is up to us. Whether we operate from the quadrant of limitation, commoditization, budgeting what little we have left, and averse to any hint of transactional friction, or from the alternative quadrants of abundance, responsible cyclical stewardship, and maximization of true potential leverage in the wild world full of new forests, terrains, and possibilities.
While certain subcategories of the world might work with economic theory in its traditional and unmodified state; growths both endless and limited, rubway points for inelastic and elastic demand, the meaningful role of government intervention, and how beautiful economics takeaways can be applied to various domains and disciplines in life, all these are summarily ignored and go unaddressed in a collected and comprehensive way. This is not because we as human beings lack the language necessary to describe what is actually happening, but because Economics arrived to the anthropocene first through necessity, and secondly through logic.
Were we to have put our minds on the science and study of limitation and unlimitation earlier, we would likely have been able to avoid many of the pitfalls of our ancestors. But for every success there are 99 failures, and the voice of experience rings louder than any instructional manual or word of warning. Thus, it is safe to say that our ancestors were operating under that Golden imperative, to preserve what works. In the modern day we are not only charged with the task to preserve what works, we are also charged with the sacred task of instilling what excels.