Much of the economic history of economic exploitation has been "take what you can" rather than free exchange. It leads to the liquidation of a valuable long-te

Much of the economic history of economic exploitation has been "take what you can" rather than free exchange. It leads to the liquidation of a valuable long-term resource for a quick short-term gain. A fishery that would be worth many billions over centuries is liquidated for millions in a few years, for example. This is especially true in the US, where so many plants and animals did not live within a system of property. The American bison was saved only because one or two landowner had a sentimental attachment to a local herd and spared them from the carnage. The passenger pigeon was exterminated for cheap meat with industrial hunting methods. Markets create positive sum games, but this was just destruction. The opportunity cost of billions of American chestnuts producing valuable nuts and timber over the last century is incalculable.