How Mining Can Be Good For the Earth: A Fun Lesson in Austrian Economics
Hey there, kiddos! Did you know that mining, which is all about digging stuff up from the earth, can actually be good for our planet? Sounds crazy, right? But let’s take a closer look with the help of Austrian economics!
Why We Mine
First, let’s imagine you’re at the beach, building a sandcastle. You need sand to build it, so you start digging all the sand you need from one spot. Soon that spot would be empty and you’d have to move to another spot. That’s what mining is like, but on a much bigger scale!
Assuming a mine depth of 5000 feet (that’s like 1667 grown-up giraffes stacked on top of each other!), the total volume of all the world’s mines would only be 0.00000528 percent of the earth’s volume. That’s like taking cookie crumb out of a jar full of cookies!
You might ask why we mine in the first place? You know all the cool stuff we use every day, like smartphones, cars, and toys? Well all these things need resources like metals and minerals to make them. And we get those natural resources from mining. No mining, no cool stuff and our lives wouldn’t be as great as they are.
Mining Responsibly
Now, some people might say that mining is bad for the earth because it’s like taking candy from a baby – we’re just using up all the earth’s resources without giving anything back. But that’s not true! In fact, mining can be good for the earth if we do it the right way.
See, Austrian economics teaches us that something only has economic value if people want it. And people definitely want lots of awesome things, so we need mining! But we also need to make sure that we’re using those resources efficiently and we’re not wasting them.
Imagine you have a cookie that you really, really want to eat. But you also know that there are other people who want cookies too, so you decide to share your cookie with your friends. That’s what we need to do with the earth’s resources – use them responsibly!
By mining responsibly and efficiently, we can keep getting the resources we need while also taking care of the earth. That’s like making sure you only take a few cookies from the jar at a time, so there are always enough cookies for everyone and we never run out!
Conclusion
In conclusion, mining might seem like a bad thing, but it’s actually a pretty great thing! With the help of Austrian economics, we can see that mining has economic value because it helps us make all the cool stuff we love. And if we mine responsibly and efficiently, we can keep making cool stuff while also taking care of the earth. So, let’s all be responsible miners and make the world a better place!
