I believe technologists continue to make the mistake of assuming everything is digital. Perhaps it's a part of the job.
"comparative advantage depends on scarcity of productive agents"
People buy things (trade) based on perceived value. That perception can be based on perceived scarcity, sentiment, anger, fear, love, happiness -- the list is very long. The scarcity argument only holds true across large industries and populations, and that's only because of the fungibility of money and the fact that material goods are (rather) easily categorized. It's not going to continue working. Money will stay fungible, but we're going to see an explosion in the kinds of things that have perceived value that the world has never seen.
Which makes sense if you think about it: as mankind has progressed, the diversity of the things he trades has increased. This trend will continue.
You guys are confusing theory and reality. Macro-economics fails us here. That's a shame. Looks like some folks have more work to do :)
It doesn't matter if everything is digital, if the creators of everything can be.
> The scarcity argument only holds true across large industries and populations
I don't think this is so, unless you're talking about handcrafted-by-genuine-Ukranian-American underwater-woven baskets. For anything that can be copied (and that segment is growing way faster than any other), the price will fall at least to just above the cost, which is low indeed. This is true for services as well, once minds to do the service can be copied.
"comparative advantage depends on scarcity of productive agents"
People buy things (trade) based on perceived value. That perception can be based on perceived scarcity, sentiment, anger, fear, love, happiness -- the list is very long. The scarcity argument only holds true across large industries and populations, and that's only because of the fungibility of money and the fact that material goods are (rather) easily categorized. It's not going to continue working. Money will stay fungible, but we're going to see an explosion in the kinds of things that have perceived value that the world has never seen.
Which makes sense if you think about it: as mankind has progressed, the diversity of the things he trades has increased. This trend will continue.
You guys are confusing theory and reality. Macro-economics fails us here. That's a shame. Looks like some folks have more work to do :)