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Many things have gone from extremely costly to almost free (Aluminum used to cost more than gold, now we wrap food in it), but that just freed up those resource
by jp555 9y ago
Many things have gone from extremely costly to almost free (Aluminum used to cost more than gold, now we wrap food in it), but that just freed up those resources to be allocated to something else where there is scarcity. This is what the force of Capitalism & free enterprise does.
Fame is an example of another scarce resource that will not diminish even with magic energy and magic alchemy. In fact, it would only become more valuable as there is a lot more resources freed up to allocate to it.
There's always going to be scarcity. You can't make more time. Unless you think we'll all have time machines as well?
- FussyZeus 9y agoWell unless you plan to have a Startup that sells Time, the scarcity of time is rather irrelevant to Capitalism, no? It has to be something a business can solve for you. Time Travel seems unlikely but treatments to extend the life of a human being so they have more time? Absolutely within the realm of possibilities, but where the first round of those will likely cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands and be newsworthy, centuries from now when those treatments are commonplace, they'll be getting cheaper and cheaper too just like aluminum did. And again you're not addressing my raw point: that scarcity is the basis of Capitalistic goods and businesses, and that once scarcity is made obsolete by the unstoppable march of technology, once material goods, everything from toilet paper all the way up to time-defying treatments comes out of our Replicator, then what is left to be scarce? The only way at such a time to maintain scarcity and therefore capitalism is to impose it artificially, and if you knowingly withhold things that could be made free, realistically and practically, for everyone simply to continue making money, I'm sorry but that is the height of evil.