factors of production and the stages at which utility or disutility can be created
during the process. The former introduced the now widely adopted four-fold concept
of capital that will become relevant below when discussing how economists anticipate the future, whereas the latter is what I am interested in here: aspects of human
existence that escape the category of product or service consumption.
• Land is now portrayed as environmental capital and its understanding is
expanded by adding ecological services. These have a utility or well-being effect
outside of economic processes through, for example, beauty and recreation in
lush forests or meadows. The three economic roles are the provision of
resources like minerals, grains, wood or stone; of direct ecosystem services like
climatic regulation or fresh water; and supplying a sink to absorb waste, like
composting organic waste into humus.
• So waste is included as an explicit category that economic processes and consumption create. It will affect utility (pleasure) directly if it stinks or pollutes the
air, and it impacts the regenerative circuits in ecological systems services.
• The concept of labor has been transformed into human capital that includes not
only the execution of production tasks but also the psychological, emotional and
social skills around them such as motivation, knowledge, creativity and health.
Also new is social capital, which embodies the relationships, norms, and procedures or institutions with which production is organized. Both are positively
influenced not only by investments but also by the general level of utility and
well-being on the side of the people involved—e.g., positive spirals of motivation, mutual support, a sense of accomplishment. This effect flows in both
Fig. 3.2 A differentiated model of wealth and utility production. Source Own illustration based
on Ekins (1992, 2000) and Costanza et al. (1997)
3.1 How Mainstream Economics Views Human Needs and Their Satisfaction
61
during the process. The former introduced the now widely adopted four-fold concept
of capital that will become relevant below when discussing how economists anticipate the future, whereas the latter is what I am interested in here: aspects of human
existence that escape the category of product or service consumption.
• Land is now portrayed as environmental capital and its understanding is
expanded by adding ecological services. These have a utility or well-being effect
outside of economic processes through, for example, beauty and recreation in
lush forests or meadows. The three economic roles are the provision of
resources like minerals, grains, wood or stone; of direct ecosystem services like
climatic regulation or fresh water; and supplying a sink to absorb waste, like
composting organic waste into humus.
• So waste is included as an explicit category that economic processes and consumption create. It will affect utility (pleasure) directly if it stinks or pollutes the
air, and it impacts the regenerative circuits in ecological systems services.
• The concept of labor has been transformed into human capital that includes not
only the execution of production tasks but also the psychological, emotional and
social skills around them such as motivation, knowledge, creativity and health.
Also new is social capital, which embodies the relationships, norms, and procedures or institutions with which production is organized. Both are positively
influenced not only by investments but also by the general level of utility and
well-being on the side of the people involved—e.g., positive spirals of motivation, mutual support, a sense of accomplishment. This effect flows in both
Fig. 3.2 A differentiated model of wealth and utility production. Source Own illustration based
on Ekins (1992, 2000) and Costanza et al. (1997)
3.1 How Mainstream Economics Views Human Needs and Their Satisfaction
61