The Malaise of Wealth: Transition to Post Scarcity

[The Dharma Bum]

[Sandman]

The author's analogy of the music industry is not a very good one. In the wake of piracy, musicians are surviving by touring more. So the whole premise is actually an argument AGAINST post-scarcity, because the reason touring still stands as the best way for musicians to make a living is because, simply put, you can't download a live performance. It is SCARCE, therefore it carries value. The same people who refuse to pay for an album when it's available for free on the internet (for good reason), are more than willing to pay $40 for a concert ticket. It's self-evident. The Roots or The Rolling Stones can't be in every city at the same time, and they never will be able to. You're not paying for the music, you're paying for the experience. And this isn't just some market anomaly caused by piracy. Touring has ALWAYS been the primary source of income for musicians.

So this is the real issue with post-scarcity. The time may come when a massive 3D printer can print a house, who knows...........but it will NEVER be able to print beach-front property.

And this is why the salesmen of socialist post-scarcity utopias spend the majority of their time talking not about economics, but about behavioral science. Either trying to convince us that we really don't want the beach-front property or the floor seats at the Knicks game, we're just being tricked by the evil consumerist capitalist system that we do.......or alternately, that we will magically change this behavior once post-scarcity comes, because, I don't know, of course we will.

[Boris Johnson]

[The Dharma Bum]

[Revenant]

[The Dharma Bum]

[Sandman]

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

The fact is we have a society where there are not enough jobs to go around and as time goes on there will only be less and less.. How is everyone going to get fed? Do any of you have an answer for that?

[Sandman]