Monthly Archives: November 2014

Limited supply, make it last — 細水長流

Now that I am retired, I found my resources are so limited. Nevertheless, It supported me in the past and more so in the remaining years of my life. It is limited and It really sink in now.
The world is a bundle of resources, all in limited supply too: Energy, in various forms; Minerals, in fact, in various stages of its primal forms; Water; Air, a mixture of various gases. Matter, no matter what matter, cannot be created or destroyed. That is the natural law. Nevertheless, It supported all life forms, man included, indiscriminately since the beginning of time.
Only man can discriminate other life forms, even among his own species. But he does one thing indiscriminately — using up all forms of earthly resources as soon as technology affords them.
Like many other retired people, I conserved while using my resources. Very rich people conserve even more. Very few super-rich people use up all their resources when they die. They spend very little comparing with their holding. We ordinary retirees, live on fixed resources, as we finally realized.
Not so for the economy when it comes to the world’s resources.
Somehow, consuming the world’s resources becomes a global sport. People exert their best effort to outspend each other. What they spend can only come from one mother earth, no other place. Something really goes wrong! Or mankind hasn’t grown old enough to learn.