Talk:Overconsumption (economics)

Definition of Overconsumption and Merger Proposal

As it stands, the definition of Overconsumption listed on this page:

"Overconsumption describes a situation where the use of a renewable natural resource exceeds its capacity to regenerate. A prolonged pattern of overconsumption leads to the eventual loss of resource bases."

Is synonymous with the definition of Overexploitation listed on that page:

"Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource."

Google lists the definition as overconsumption as "The action or fact of consuming something to excess.", and gives an example: the overconsumption of alcohol. The editors of the Overexploitation page created it from a natural resource perspective and were curious if this page was made from a more Consumption perspective, due to its first header being "Economic growth". If so, it may be beneficial to at least change the beginning definition of this page to not include natural resources, but instead to talk about resources from an economic perspective e.g. as given on the Consumption page. I was thinking we could put something like the following: "Overconsumption describes a situation where a consumer overuses their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish them. In microeconomics, this may be described as the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater than their marginal utility." The idea here being that "overconsumption" refers to not only natural resources, but also man-made resources -- which means all resources in general, creating a more economic perspective. Would anyone be opposed to me rewriting the definition of Overconsumption here as such? LightProof1995 (talk) 07:36, 27 August 2022 (UTC)