Every action requires an expenditure of energy and time, but not only that, means must be employed to attain the expected ends. Every action, no matter how small or how large requires transformation of certain goods into other goods. When a living organism is at rest, it is consuming its resources and time is passing. If it does not acquire replacement food and energy, it will die. A human is no different, he needs a repeating supply of resources, otherwise he will die.

Every transformation requires that the raw materials are consumed to form components of the transformed product. If a man exerts himself, he will expend a some of his resources. When Man eats meat, he transforms the proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients into amino acids, lipids and sugars etc. Even if a molecule is untransformed in digestion, it is separated from other nutrients during digestion.

When crops are planted, soil nutrients and atmospheric gases are transformed, forming the plant. The raw materials are no longer available to another organism. When metals and plastics are transformed into an automobile, the raw materials are no longer available for another purpose. The manufacturer of the automobile uses the raw materials to transform them into another product. If the manufacturer refuses to sacrifice the raw materials, if he wants to keep them for some future purpose, then he cannot make the automobile. All production requires some consumption or transformation. Resources, which are diverted into one production process, cannot be used in another process. These resources cannot be magically created. They must first exist or be transformed into the required resource.

It is true that the vast majority of transformations in the universe are unconscious. However, Man is conscious and self aware. But his transformations are still subject to the same natural laws as an unconscious plant or digestive system. A resource, which was in one form, is transformed into another. A resource once transformed is no longer available.

When Man chooses between two or more alternatives, the choice itself involves a consumption of energy and time. The rearrangement of information in the brain or other calculating device cannot be accomplished without a reorganisation, which itself cannot happen, without an expenditure of energy and time. It does not matter, if it is a single amoeba or an entire civilisation that acts to produce a certain outcome. Every act requires resources and time. In eating food, Man uses up some of his available time and he uses some of his saved resources to digest the food. Obviously the goal of eating food is to replenish more than the energy expended in its consumption.

These points have profound consequences for the operation of society. There is no action, no decision, no service, product or assistance that can be accomplished by any entity without a consumption of some description. Production or transformation of resources today, means that alternate production or consumption cannot be accomplished, with those resources tomorrow. There is no magical source of resources which can avoid this law. No human or human agency, such as government can create any product. All production requires a transformation of one product into another. And all transformations will require at least some fraction of time.

Any resource, which is used in one form of production cannot be simultaneously used for another process. Resources can merely be diverted. It can be difficult when the scale of operations is large and complex, to see how the use of some resources for some activity will affect a completely separate production process. Nevertheless, we can see that if it is always true on a small scale, so it must be true on a large scale.