3 ms·

I don't diagree with anything you said, but your rationalisation of why we have the current system is based on the premise that we have to have the current syst

• petewailes 10y ago
  I'm not saying we have to have it. Post-scarcity economics are great, once you've got effectively limitless production capacity. Without that, you've got to have a way for people to exchange goods and services.
  • gaius 10y ago
    Post scarcity isn't just about production, it's also about logistics, everyone forgets that.
    • petewailes 10y ago
      Sure, but if you've got essentially limitless production, you must have de facto solved logistics too. (I can't imagine a scenario where you get production without the infrastructure)
      • gaius 10y ago
        That doesn't follow. One can easily imagine a situation in which the US or Western Europe are post-scarcity but the rest of the world isn't.
      • zo1 10y ago
        If you don't have the ability to near-instantaneously "spike" your production to meet demand, then you have an opportunity for arbitrage. At least a time-based one. Additionally, if you do have over-abundant capacity to pre-manufacture well above that required "spike", then you need to a) use logistics to get it there and b) foresight of knowing where you need to get it to, and how much of it. Otherwise, you'd have to have the ability to produce any arbitrary amount of it at the desired location when the need requires. By it, I generally mean all products.