5 ms·

One way I like to think about progress: there are things that are (basically) post-scarcity. Things that have become either too cheap to meter or close to it (f

by patmcc 3y ago

One way I like to think about progress: there are things that are (basically) post-scarcity. Things that have become either too cheap to meter or close to it (for an average "western" consumer, at least). Light. Water. Ice. Calories (if not picky). Entertainment (radio, youtube, etc). Information (google, Wikipedia). We still have a ways to go, but that's a good damn start.

philipkglass 3y ago
I agree. My personal term for this is "weakly post scarcity." It's the point at which the median member of a society will more often suffer from excessive consumption of $thing than they suffer from deprivation of $thing. There will never be true post-scarcity in our finite universe. A lot of services and goods can become weakly post scarcity in that they'll exhaust someone's finite time (watching YouTube or other entertainment) or destroy their body (drinking alcohol) before the median person will run out of money to personally consume more of them. The weakly post scarcity environment brings new challenges but they are largely better ones to grapple with than those of a high scarcity environment.
jiggawatts 3y ago
In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, I had some friends that got their news from Zero Henge got into a panic spiral. One of them was seriously thinking of quickly buying a plot of land and farming it so he wouldn't starve to death when the economy collapsed. I had to explain to him that no, he won't starve to death. Even if money ceases to exist overnight, the government will step in and forcibly collect the food from farmers if need be and distribute it to the cities. As a part of the argument I worked out what it takes to feed an adult for a year with storable staples. There's "preppers" that have helpfully prepared lists of things to buy with nutrition profiles, etc... Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply of salt, sugar, oil, lentils, dried fruits, nuts, flour, etc... You can scrape together that much money even if you're unemployed!
- fooker 3y ago
  >Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply... The real issue is doing this while everyone else in the city is trying to do this at the same time. Our supply chains are very very fragile, as COVID era panics have proved.
  - jiggawatts 3y ago
    So the preppers were right all along...?
    - fooker 3y ago
      In some sense. It really depends on how much you are willing to prepare for low probability events. Would you wear a bullet proof vest every day?

by patmcc 3y ago

philipkglass 3y ago

I agree. My personal term for this is "weakly post scarcity." It's the point at which the median member of a society will more often suffer from excessive consumption of $thing than they suffer from deprivation of $thing. There will never be true post-scarcity in our finite universe. A lot of services and goods can become weakly post scarcity in that they'll exhaust someone's finite time (watching YouTube or other entertainment) or destroy their body (drinking alcohol) before the median person will run out of money to personally consume more of them. The weakly post scarcity environment brings new challenges but they are largely better ones to grapple with than those of a high scarcity environment.

jiggawatts 3y ago

In 2008 when the financial crisis hit, I had some friends that got their news from Zero Henge got into a panic spiral. One of them was seriously thinking of quickly buying a plot of land and farming it so he wouldn't starve to death when the economy collapsed. I had to explain to him that no, he won't starve to death. Even if money ceases to exist overnight, the government will step in and forcibly collect the food from farmers if need be and distribute it to the cities. As a part of the argument I worked out what it takes to feed an adult for a year with storable staples. There's "preppers" that have helpfully prepared lists of things to buy with nutrition profiles, etc... Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply of salt, sugar, oil, lentils, dried fruits, nuts, flour, etc... You can scrape together that much money even if you're unemployed!

fooker 3y ago
>Apparently, all you need is a trip to Costco and about $2,000 will buy you a year's supply... The real issue is doing this while everyone else in the city is trying to do this at the same time. Our supply chains are very very fragile, as COVID era panics have proved.
- jiggawatts 3y ago
  So the preppers were right all along...?
  - fooker 3y ago
    In some sense. It really depends on how much you are willing to prepare for low probability events. Would you wear a bullet proof vest every day?