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Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty. It is not a zero sum game. People will invent new things and new industries. There are infinite possibilities to
by wait_a_minute 3y ago
Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty. It is not a zero sum game. People will invent new things and new industries. There are infinite possibilities to discover and all of those are new products and services and experiences to build.
All the commodities humans need for huge increases in per capita wealth are plentiful throughout the universe. NASA wants to explore an asteroid that just by itself is worth $10 quintillion because of all the precious metals in it. That isn’t even the biggest one discovered. There are going to be endless asteroids and entire planets like these.
And there will be endless planets that can be settled and colonized and terraformed.
- smeej 3y agoI do wonder about that valuation, though. Unless they only manage to extract the value so slowly it doesn't flood the market, wouldn't the "precious" medals just become less precious? At least the ones where the value largely comes from scarcity? This example has nothing to do with this specific asteroid, but it makes the general point: If the amount of gold available doubles over 50 years, the market could probably handle it. But if it goes up 2x per year for 50 years? The price craters.
- wait_a_minute 3y agoYes the prices would plummet but that means wealth per capita increases in real terms. Producing the goods and services that depend on those cheaper commodities will become much cheaper. If we get to a world where everything of value today costs $1 to produce tomorrow, that’s a much wealthier (non zero sum) world.