ABSTRACT
Resources are assumed to be relatively abundant in the broad (global) sense or in the narrower (local) sense. In the global sense, this includes forests, minerals, water, energy, arable land, etc., all of which are assumed to exist as exchangeable market-allocated assets in support of economic activity anywhere in the world. The Homestead Act promoted the notion that unused or “waste” land be made available essentially free to citizens who would put it to productive use. The use of wastes as inputs is one characteristic of an ecosystem, which is the reason why it is often said that there is no waste in a healthy functioning ecosystem. In recent years, there have been strident calls to harness the power of the marketplace, the forces of supply and demand, to effectively allocate resources for human society. Economic systems have, with few exceptions, been evolving toward market economies at a rapid rate.
