Reply #5: An interesting question, and one that's central to a lot of things.

[MineralMan]

When it's asked, it stimulates other questions, and there's the problem. For example. How are the resources allocated? How are they distributed equitably? Where capital expenditures and labor are needed to acquire, process, or utilize the resources, who provides those? Those are some of the questions that must be answered.

Global resources are not always located where they are needed, and are often not in a usable form. This creates many of the issues that those questions ask.

I have no answers to the questions.