Roger's Re-think: PLOVER - Value - ECONOMY and RESOURCES

An action, or a plan for action, cannot be considered good if they lead to misuse of resources or economic difficulties.

Many decisions in modern days are made without adequate consideration about the resources needed to make things happen. This includes their availability, their value for alternative uses and their possible exhaustion.

In this pragmatic aspect, the issue is to ensure that the resources being used in activities are sufficient, of adequate quality, balanced and husbanded for the longer term. The goal should be gradual improvement in human living standards, with benefits spread widely.

Some examples of material resources are: food, water (drinking and washing), clean air, minerals, wood, plant materials, transport facilities (personal and public), electricity, markets, beds (in a home or hospital), chemical products, waste processing, leisure facilities and storage facilities. For many functions in human living, the most important resources are people and money.

Families, villages, cities and states need to ensure that by taking one action with regard to resources, they do not create contingent problems in regard to some other resources.

To a company, 'manpower' (with various skills) can be regarded as a resource. But the humans themselves should also be regarded as collaborators in the work.

Money should be regarded as a resource; but not as an end in itself. Rather it is a temporary store of means of exchange or 'credit' which can enable actions to happen when they would otherwise be prevented.

Beyond the borders of this side of the Pentagon lie uneconomic projects, financial crises, famines, waste and greed. Waters can become polluted by sewage and other poisonous material; the air can be polluted by the smoke from fires. Resources can become exhausted by over-use; forests have been cut down to provide wood for ships and for fires, and not replaced.

If we take too much of a resource now, it becomes scarce when we or others need it later. This problem and other factors may also lead to the risk of the falling off of quality of life in a city or nation. Inequality over how resources are shared can also lead to a dysfunctional society, with lack of motivation for the disadvantaged groups. It can also lead to wars between states.

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This version updated on 14^th July 2023