[robocat]

> All wealth arises from natural resources.

So services, technology, knowledge are only valued in their affect on resources? Commodities are relatively cheap - I can buy me some gold.

Power and status are independant of natural resource ownership.

[fuzzfactor]

I say it's the cheapness and abundance of commodities that makes it easier to add value for quite a long chain, and when you get into manufacturing it can be a big jump.

Services, technology and education are all worth money on their own but it does seem to take quite a bit of resource abundance at some point for somebody to be able to pay the bills.

Especially when resources were developed generations ago, there can be so many layers between the commodity and the consumer that things like service, tech, and education can be valued in their affect on each other without any direct correlation to a particular commodity or manufactured product.