the.com/surplus
the leftover that quietly decides who eats, who hoards, and who writes the rules
means The amount of something left over after needs or demands have been met — more than you require.
from From the Old French 'sorplus,' meaning 'overflow' or 'excess,' which breaks down into the Latin 'super' ('over, above') plus 'plus' ('more'). So at its root it's literally 'over-more' — the more that piles up above what's needed, doubling down on abundance.
- birth of cities
- Grain surplus let humans stop foraging, start scheming
- economic engine
- Marx pinned profit on unpaid surplus labor
- butter mountains
- EU once stockpiled millions of tons unsold
- military bargains
- Army surplus jackets armed a thousand thrift-store rebels
- consumer surplus
- The gap between what you'd pay and did
us agricultural surplus 1950s — us produced 50% more wheat than domestic demand, exported via public law 480
california water surplus 2011 — after heavy snowpack, state released 1.4 million acre-feet into san francisco bay
opec oil surplus 1980s — global oil production exceeded demand by 2 million barrels/day, crashed prices from $40 to $10