People are good at maximizing their happiness through the decisions they make.  As a group, people are not good at choosing the appropriate decision, as all the information is not always available, and the incentive is not geared towards our habitat? or society? (I want better words for this). 

In our existing monetary system where price is not adjustedby supply, people tend to choose products that are cheaper and are unsustainable.  A good example is water bottles.  It is cheaper as of this writing to buy 24 bottles of 500ml water bottles then to, say, purchase  a set of 4L returnable jugs and use reusable water bottles.  The latter would consume less oil, the unsustainable commodity.  If the price didn't matter as much (because of abudance), I believe people would choose the sustainable option.  Particulaly with the introduction of Resource dollars, where society can define their own level of sustainability.