Thinking Economically, How Economic Principles Can Contribute to Clear Thinking, by Maurice Levi
New York: Basic Books, 1985
LC HB71.L53 1985

"...the extra satisfaction from consuming more will eventually decline. The economist believes that this is true of every product or activity we3 consume. It is referred to as the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility."

that individuals obey this law of diminishing marginal utility but producers do not, but instead stockpile commodities to satisfy their production goals, a totally different dynamic than diminishing marginal utility, seems to me to be at the heart of what homo sapiens does to adapt. at some point there arose an agreement among packs of individuals to feed commodities in and out of the collective hoard with an idea of production rather than consumption, a totally different way of accounting for substances. this proved itself first in hunting and gathering. individual consumption is incapable of managing it. too many complexities. no resolution of functional variety necessary to beat other species at predatory competition. the management of a material concept abstracted from individual consumption made the difference. how did they succeed in keeping everyone convinced there was a benefit in a way of reckoning material that essentially denied the reality of individual consumption? If I could identify how they did this, i could start a new trail of species adaptation.