If we had that magic machine, then there would be something else that money could buy that everyone would want, and spend their whole lives competing over. Mayb

If we had that magic machine, then there would be something else that money could buy that everyone would want, and spend their whole lives competing over. Maybe it would be a house with a specific view or an original of a painting or whatever. I think most people want social status, and money is a good proxy of that. Even in a hypothetical moneyless society there would still be things to compete over. Due to the hedonic treadmill, in an automated society where anyone can have any good then those things will become worthless. We'll probably still have poor people, and from their perspective they'll be poor, but from ours they'll be very wealthy.