Possessing a scarce resource confers status. If we ever somehow eliminated scarcity, it would be reimposed artificially (and arbitrarily) by the Powers That Be

Possessing a scarce resource confers status. If we ever somehow eliminated scarcity, it would be reimposed artificially (and arbitrarily) by the Powers That Be because we humans, being primates, organise ourselves hierarchically. Dominance has to be established and maintained even in groups with as few as two members. Take this away, and you take away part of what makes us human.