As the sibling comments' note, post-scarcity is the direction of progress even if not yet the position. Scarcity's object is a moving target, of course. For exa

As the sibling comments' note, post-scarcity is the direction of progress even if not yet the position. Scarcity's object is a moving target, of course. For example, instead of abject starvation, the primary focus becomes food security. This is progress to be celebrated. At the same time as things like basic foodstuffs are becoming ubiquitously available, there is also a dematerialization of humanity. A prime example are household goods, like phone book, encyclopedia, cookbooks, typewriter, checkbook, phone and answering machine, etc that are made redundant by inexpensive compute and connectivity. In addition to the basics being non-scarce the highest intellectual achievements of the world are simultaneously delivered in better quality for less than ever. Are we approaching a post-scarcity world now? Yes and, as always, the future isn't evenly distributed. A society that can afford to hold labor pools un-utilized indicates one that is rich in basic needs. For it to be a crisis that their labor is not required indicates a society poor in imagination.