How would life change in a Post-scarcity economy
Post-scarcity economy is one where due to extreme advancements in technology and Artificial Intelligence, most things are available for free or very cheaply. According to some, we could have a Post-scarcity economy by as soon as 2050! If you think about it, the world has been going in that direction. For example, nowadays people from different continents can communicate with each other freely, while in the 1970s for example, this used to cost significant amount of money. Similarly, home computers were considered a luxury item in the 1980s, but now almost everyone has it.
So, how would life of people change if almost everything is available for free? I can think of the following.
People would still work for extra credits or for their passion
While the basic things in life would be free, a few things would always remain scarce, such as prime real estate. Societies would therefore have some kind of credit system, where those scarce resources would be given to those with the most of such credits. Moreover, even if you remove money completely, people would still want to exceed in the arts they practice. For example, a guitarist would still want to show to the world that he is better than other guitar players. Similarly, a programmer would still want to make programs which are used by many. The same thing can be applied to sports and other fields as well.
There would be fewer crimes
We can agree that most crimes perpetrated are related to money. When people can live well without money, there would be fewer crimes. We can already see that there are more crimes committed in capitalist societies than in socialist societies. I remember reading a news, where Netherlands had to import prisoners from Belgium to fill up their prisons.
Finding a partner would become more difficult for men
Having money gives an edge to a man when it comes to finding a partner for marriage. But money being out of equation, now other parameters, such as looks, confidence, intelligence and status etc, would become even more important for a man to have to attract a partner.
There might be several other changes as well. If you have any in mind, kindly let us know.
Lethal diseases still exist and some of them require extreme levels of knowledge and skills to cure. Is there enough people at any given time who are willing to be doctors voluntarily to satisfy the demand for medical care when there is post scarcity economy? Just Curious?
Well, due to advancements in medical technology, we can expect to have found cures of almost all the diseases. And doctors would be mostly replaced by robots.
Robots to save life would be good :)
@hmushtag as much as i agree with your analysis abt surviving a post scarcity economy i find it difficult to believe that such economy will ever exist, owing to the fact that the wastage in todays economy will leave the next 10 generation begging, if only we can reduce the rate at which we are wasting natural resource which doesnt replenish as fast as they are used then we can have hope but for now @jedhen sees no hope
#jedhen
Well the idea is that we would be able to extract plenty of materials through Asteroid mining, and have very good ways of generating energy through renewable energy resources. But of course, you won't want the population to grow out of limits.
Price of real estate will rise . AI may also take some jobs .
AI will actually take almost all of the jobs, which is why most things would become free. Basically, software and robots would be servicing humans.
I think post scarcity world will most likely not happen, because as resources become available easily, we compensate for that by increasing our population dramatically. Its not that we do it on purpose, it just how it happens to be for all living beings, from bacteria to trees, and from whales to humans.
Maybe though, there is some hope that in future, the population rise will stop, and we will slowly and steadily move towards a world where no one sleeps hungry.
Yup, controlling the population would be necessary to enable us to have a post-scarcity economy.
@originalworks