What are the limiting factors contributing to quality of life? Raw natural resources or post-processing and value added by people to those resources? The idea

What are the limiting factors contributing to quality of life? Raw natural resources or post-processing and value added by people to those resources? The idea back in the twentieth century that overpopulation underlaid all problems seemed to be based on a subconscious idea that capital stock maintains itself and stuff produces itself. It takes far fewer acres, gallons of water and farmer-hours to feed a person in 2018, because the economy is more developed. Same goes for almost everything people need in their day to day lives, because a larger population supports more specialized occupations. On an entrepreneurial site with people who like to build things there is going to be some bias towards appreciating individual self-sufficiency, like a household version of autarky, but it isn't the path to producing the good and services that are important to supporting a high quality of life for people.