What Is Abundance? It starts with information.

[Atheistx82]

A world of abundance is just at our finger tips, we no longer need to deforest trees as we can produce artificial wood chemically (when this catches on, it's going to be big), and vat grown food will ensure an infinitely sustainable food source, air and water recycling will make water sources more sustainable, and wide scale automation will take over more and more work. There will be some trial and error along the way, and a period of adjustment, but none of these changes are a bad thing.

[Malthus0]

Even if a good ceases to be scarce then that still does not cause a problem for economic theory.The the one thing that is in the general sense completely free(under ordinary circumstances)is the air we breathe

Yet is this a problem for economics? Of course not. It is possible to respond to this by saying that we do not have to pay the trees to make oxygen. Well if we have to pay them it is clear that their product is not abundant, if it were it would be like air. A non economic good.

[MarkProffitt]

Something I have not yet explained is that things can act like they are free even if there is a some small cost. The supply exceeds the demand so much that they are treated like they are free. It not worth the effort to count the cost. Free refills, free WiFi are some examples.

Now what if the thing you sell becomes free? That is happening to everyone because technology is replacing labor at all levels. So the is plenty of everything but you still can have it. Its a divide by zero problem.

[Malthus0]

Part2 The question you have to ask yourself is at any particular point in time is. Am I being forced to choose between competing uses of something? Be it: money, time or resources and effort of various kinds. If the answer is no. Then you live in another reality. If it is yes then the basis of economics remains untouched.

[MarkProffitt]

There are a few things that a naturally scarce. For humans time is a quasi scarce. We only have now. But we can invest our nows to make future nows more productive. So that even makes time less scarce.

Of course we still have attention and lifespan. Attention can be increased to a degree with technology but its also a little weird since attention is part of demand so as your attention is consumed you demand decreases leading to supply / demand >= 1

[Malthus0]

A technical point.

Scarcity The excess of wants over the ability to satisfy those wants.

Abundance - the opposite of scarcity.

Scarcity necessitates choices between competing uses of existing capabilities. Opportunity cost being the benefit forgone by choosing the next best option.

[aliasdee]

very interesting Mark. SO agree that abundance is the way of the universe and most human systems are based on scarcity. well said.

I am trying to re-wire my brain to understand this new world that we are going to be emerging into.

[MarkProffitt]

The transition to abundance is likely to be very painful. Technical unemployment should be a great thing but we don't have broad ownership of real capital (stuff that makes stuff). Until we achieve global abundance of the needed stuff we still need a reward structure and a way for people to get the things that are not free.

Another big problem is many people don't know how to live without being forced to work. They aren't self motivated. Spring break 24/7 or doing nothing causes problems.