The following table shows how a focus on abundance creates a mindset that is orthogonal to one that focuses on scarcity:
| Abundance | Scarcity |
| Commons | Markets |
| Community | Corporation |
| Common good | Self-interest |
| Cooperation | Competition |
| Culture | Commerce |
| Balance | Growth |
| Stewardship | Exploitation |
| Minimizing risk | Maximizing gain |
| Reliability | Efficiency |
The three major sectors of the economy - the agriculture, industrial and information sectors - present us with a complex mix of markets and commons of scarce and abundant goods. We need to tap into the vast pool of historical as well as current insight, knowledge and experience to develop a modern theory of political economy that can cope with both abundance and scarcity.
