Resources

 

                                                              

                                    Resources

A constant criticism of the West is its exploitation of small nations' natural resources.

But, as McCloskey writes, “'Resources' don’t matter until new ideas make them valuable." Oil has been around forever. It was valuable only with the development of internal combustion. In the beginning, there was light. Only recently has it become LASER. For that matter, the lobster was worthless until some madman decided to cook it.

All such criticisms depend upon the belief that raw materials have their own value, their own inevitable place in the future. Historical inevitability, or something. That these "resources" are inherently valuable, only waiting to be released but looted by outsiders. This is clearly not true.

It is the basic human intervention, the creative mind, that manages these inert compounds, chemicals, and things and makes them valuable.