Limited resources are those goods that are used to create products and services. They are also called production factors. All of these resources are limited. 
Classification
The following limited resources exist:
- Natural. These include subsoil, aquatic, biological, recreational, forest and other natural objects.
- Work.
- Capital. These limited resources exist in the form of securities, money, means of production.
- Entrepreneurial abilities.
- Knowledge.
From ancient times it is believed that labor is a key production factor. This opinion was shared, in particular, by Aristotle, and then the first economic school - mercantilism. Physiocrats attributed key importance to the earth. Adam Smith's theory of limited resources such as labor, capital, and natural resources, were considered in the complex. However, the clearest formulation of the theory of three production factors was given by J. B. Say. Alfred Marshall proposed adding another resource - entrepreneurial ability. Currently, they, together with knowledge, have moved to key positions among all production factors. 
Limited resources and limitless needs.
These situations are typical in the economic life of any subject. In essence, they form the basis of economic theory. In a society with scarce production factors, the question "what, for whom and how to create" is constantly being addressed. In other words, within the framework of science, the problems of efficient and rational use are investigated. economic resources or managing them to achieve the greatest possible satisfaction of the material needs of people. Of course, the tasks of discipline are not limited solely to this. However, the contradiction formed by limited resources and unlimited needs forms the axis around which economic life flows. Any producing entity constantly has to choose which benefits to acquire or create, taking into account its capabilities.
Correlation of factors
Limited resources in the economy are constantly interacting with each other benefits. So, knowledge is used when business entities seek to increase the productivity of equipment - real capital. Scientific advances contribute to a more rational distribution of natural resources. Using managerial knowledge, entrepreneurs organize their production more efficiently. 
Mobility
Since resources are limited, they are mobile. They can move between countries or within a state. Meanwhile, the level of resource mobility is different. So, the mobility of the earth is approaching zero - it is difficult to move it from place to place. However, there are very mobile limited resources in the economy. Examples are labor, knowledge, capital. Labor mobility is visible in the external and internal migration of the population. Mobility and entrepreneurial ability. However, most often they do not move independently, but together with capital or labor. This is due to the fact that the carriers of these abilities are either hired managers or owners of funds.
Interchangeability
The mobility and interweaving of production factors reflects to a certain extent their other important property - alternativeness. Partially interchangeable all limited resources. Examples can be given here. Suppose a farmer is faced with the task of increasing the volume of grain.He can solve it by expanding the sown area or by hiring additional workers. A farmer can increase the fleet of equipment or use seeds of new species. This choice is possible precisely because all limited resources are interchangeable.
Difficulties
As a rule, the alternative cannot be complete. Thus, labor cannot completely replace capital. Otherwise, personnel will be left without equipment and tools. Limited resources first succeed easily, and then more and more. With a constant number of factors, it is possible to oblige workers to work in two shifts. But to hire more people and organize a third will be problematic. Business entities constantly use the properties of resources. In conditions of their scarcity, the entrepreneur needs to find the most effective and rational combination. 
Factor Markets
All limited resources are involved in the turnover. They form global markets: labor, capital, etc. Each of them, in turn, has a structure. So, the labor market includes sectors in which certain specialists are present: accountants, engineers, economists, etc. They can also have their own structure. For example, marketers, financiers, and others are present in the economists market.
Features of the needs of people
The key task of economic activity is to rationally use limited resources. In economics, the problem of satisfying the needs of each person, society and the state as a whole is constantly being solved. A huge number of enterprises work for this. Meanwhile, needs have a number of properties: unlimited, unsaturated. In addition, they are constantly increasing both in quantitative and in qualitative terms.
Of course, some of the needs of an individual or family can be satisfied. For example, people living in the same apartment hardly need 5 refrigerators. However, the desire for wealth, the desire to receive a constantly increasing profit do not have clear limits. The same can be said about people's needs to acquire values that they lack.
As for collective, social, state needs, in many ways they are practically unlimited. It is difficult to determine the levels of their absolute satisfaction. Thus, all people, to one degree or another, would like to consume a large, almost unlimited amount of goods in the form of consumer services and goods. Accordingly, for their creation, it is necessary to constantly increase the diversity and number of production factors, for the receipt of which the initial use of resources (natural, labor, information, etc.) is necessary. It is at this moment that a contradiction arises between desires and the real possibilities of satisfying them. 
Principle of scarcity
All the resources that are at the disposal of mankind are limited. Production benefits are scarce in both qualitative and quantitative terms. They are initially insufficient to satisfy the full range of needs. This, in fact, is the principle of scarcity. In every country, in any enterprise, in any family there are limited resources.
In Russia, the problem of a shortage of capital, knowledge, and labor has recently become acute. As for land, the territory for the placement of objects, air, water, minerals, flora and fauna have finite limits of use. Natural resources, in addition to being limited, are non-renewable.
The specified limits exist for the means of production in the form of equipment, materials, machines, structures. They are determined by the possibilities of creating such objects, the efficiency and nature of their operation, retirement as moral or physical wear and tear. The appearance of secondary raw materials allows only partially restore them.
Labor is limited by the ability and ability to work, the amount of time. Cognition, in principle, has no limits. However, the real volume of available data, information — information resources — is almost always quantitatively insufficient and qualitatively imperfect to solve current and future economic problems. As a means of acquiring certain production factors, financial capital acts. However, it is also limited. 
findings
The principle of scarcity of existing resources is comprehensive. In this regard, in foreign literature it is called fundamental. Moreover, the very problem of limited production factors is considered one of the most relevant in the modern world. As mentioned above, economic science acts as a discipline that explores how a society that has limited resources decides what for whom and how to graduate. Proponents of this definition, the main task and the problem of economic activity see finding ways to maximize utility, consumer effect, given the scarcity of existing production factors that can be used to obtain the desired results.
Public policy
The resources available to mankind are really limited. This means that you need to treat them sparingly. In modern society, the problem of scarcity should be discussed constantly. It is necessary to look for ways to prevent the misuse of resources. So, in the Russian Federation, national programs are being developed aimed at optimizing economic activity.
For example, the priority today is the efficient use of energy resources under constant state control. Legal entities and citizens are required to keep records of received, produced and consumed capacities. Energy standards are included in state standards for structures, equipment and materials. One of the key areas in the field of energy conservation is the certification of facilities. All these measures are based on a combination of the interests of producers, suppliers and consumers, the desire of the state for the rational use of energy raw materials.
Concerning biological resources then one of their key properties is the ability to self-reproduce. But due to the constantly increasing anthropogenic impact on nature, overuse, their potential is rapidly declining. Populations of many animals and plants begin to degrade, and some of them are already on the verge of extinction. To organize the efficient use of natural resources, it is first of all necessary to ensure reasonable limits for their use. Indicators should completely eliminate the loss and depletion of the ability of natural raw materials to self-reproduce. 
Conclusion
In the modern world, the needs of mankind are rapidly increasing. At the same time, there is a significant reduction in resources that people can use in production. Some of them are non-renewable, and their irrational use can lead to their complete loss. Any state, with these or those resources, should take the necessary measures to save them. Programs should be developed that would maintain a balance between people's needs and production capabilities.
The rational use of existing resources is one of the priority tasks that is solved by both each state individually and the entire world community as a whole. Resource conservation at industrial enterprises is especially important. It is ensured by regulations, standards, rules, requirements. Each subject must understand that the irrational use of resources will lead to their disappearance.
