From Scarcity to Abundance — Living Systems Economics examination

Eleven questions. Nine of eleven passes, and you can take it again as often as you like.

What does the module identify as the foundational assumption of conventional economics?

Human beings are fundamentally cooperative rather than competitive Value is set solely by the amount of labour that goes into a good Markets always settle into a stable equilibrium without outside help Wants are infinite and resources finite
How does the module assess the scarcity framework?

Useful only for studying small, pre-industrial agricultural economies Entirely false, and best abandoned by serious economists Not wrong, but incomplete in ways that shaped everything built on it Complete and sufficient for the challenges of the present
What is the module's central reframing of scarcity?

Scarcity affects poorer nations but not wealthy economies, which is the assumption most people start with Scarcity is an illusion that has no practical effect on anyone Scarcity is a feature of relationship, not a fixed property of reality Scarcity is a fixed cosmic law that no design can ever alter
The planet holds vast quantities of water. What, according to the module, is actually scarce?

Rainfall in every region of the world alike Clean, accessible, well-governed freshwater Salt water suitable for industrial processes Water vapour held in the upper atmosphere
What did Elinor Ostrom's research on common-pool resources demonstrate?

Only strong central governments are able to manage fisheries and forests well Communities sustained shared resources for centuries without privatisation or state control Shared resources are always destroyed unless they are converted to private ownership, provided nothing else changes in the meantime Common resources are best allocated by competitive auction to the highest bidder
What shift does the module propose, precisely?

From market coordination to comprehensive central planning From economic growth to deliberate and permanent contraction From scarcity to a naive plenty that recognises no real constraints at all From scarcity as foundation to abundance as relational possibility
How did the island of Samsø become carbon-negative?

By importing cheap surplus energy from the Danish mainland By reducing its population and closing local industries Through community investment and local ownership of turbines Through a top-down mandate imposed on residents by the state, without addressing what is actually driving the pattern
On the Abundancia farm, why were the shallow wells stable while neighbours drilled deeper?

The farm held rights to extra groundwater The farm bought water from another district The farm grew fewer crops and pumped less Restored soil held rainwater like a sponge
How does the module describe the relationship between abundance economics and scarcity economics?

Ignoring scarcity as irrelevant to living systems Transcending and including scarcity, not replacing it Treating scarcity as the only valid economic lens Replacing scarcity economics entirely with a new model
Someone notices their body contracting at thoughts of 'not enough time'. What does the module suggest asking?

Is this actually true right now? What can I cut from my life to cope? Who is responsible for this shortage? How can I compete harder for what remains?
Why does the module say the abundance shift is 'harder thinking', not soft thinking?

It holds real constraints and living systems' regenerative tendency at once It denies that any genuine resource constraint exists in the world, so long as it appears to work in the short run It depends on predicting market movements with great precision It requires advanced mathematics that few economists have mastered