Human actions should not be conflated with goods. The failure to distinguish between the two, at the most fundamental level, leads to errors of significant consequence. Actions are fundamentally human preferences given expression through goods, which are the objects of that expression. Without expression, a preference is merely a thought and a good provides no service. Catallactics concerns itself with expressed preferences, specifically production, trade, and consumption.

The human spirit is the actor (person). It has preferences that it expresses by motivating the body over which it has control (owns). This body is its property, a good. When its body is fully depreciated (dead), the spirit ceases to be an actor. It is not necessary to contemplate disembodied spirits, as no action is implied.

Catallactics is not concerned with legal, theological, or ethical concepts of humanity. The Turing Test is sufficient criteria for the definition of humanity. The catallactic distinction is in the formation of preferences, independent of any other actor. A person in this sense is a decision-maker, as distinct from a rule-follower. A machine is a good that expresses the preferences of a person. A person expresses its preferences by motivating its machine.

A spirit cannot be property, and a body is the property of its spirit. Only the spirit controls the body, where control defines ownership. Where the spirit is compelled to act through the aggression of another actor, the preference is not independent. The preference expressed (action) is that of the aggressor.

Catallactics considers only the consequences of independent actors. When a person suffers theft, the thief's preference is expressed, not his own. When a person pays a tax, he is presumed to be expressing the preference of another person, as tax is involuntary by nature. Slavery implies expression of the slaver's preferences, not those of the slave. The substitution of one's preference for that of another is involuntary trade (theft).

It is sometimes argued that time is valuable because life is temporary. This is not the basis of time preference. The impermanence of a person is of no consequence to catallactics. A person may live forever yet is still presumed to exhibit a preference for goods sooner than later. Infinite life does not imply no desire to consume.

Action is the expression of human preference through goods. Processes directed by humans are action, processes directed by machines are goods. In other words, production/labor, trade/theft, and leisure/waste are actions, while websites, assembly lines, and cars are goods.