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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday July 12 2015, @11:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the eject-the-core dept.

Anna North writes in the NY Times about Star Trek's "post-economic" system, in which money no longer exists and anything you want can be made in a replicator, essentially for free. According to Manu Saadia, the author of "Trekonomics," a forthcoming book about the economics of the Star Trek universe, when everything is free, objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: "Instead of working to become more wealthy, you work to increase your reputation," says Saadia. "You work to increase your prestige. You want to be the best captain or the best scientist in the entire galaxy. And many other people are working to do that, as well. It's very meritocratic"

In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone's needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away but a post-scarcity economy is actually far more within reach than the technological advances for which Star Trek is better known. If productivity growth continues, Saadia believes there will be much more wealth to go around in a few hundred years' time. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: "You work to live rather than the other way round." Wealthy retirees today also already live an essentially post-money existence, "traveling and exploring and deepening their understanding of the world and being generally happy." According to Saadia we're beginning to get a few hints of what the post-money, reputation-based economy might look like. "If you look at things like Instagram, Vine, places where people put a huge amount of work into basically just gaining a certain amount of reputation, it's fascinating to see. Or even Wikipedia, for that matter. The Internet has begun to give us a hint of how much people will work, for no money, just for reputation."


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  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday July 12 2015, @08:09PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Sunday July 12 2015, @08:09PM (#208232) Journal

    Regardless of how good 3d printing is today

    Keyword highlighted above: today. Go back a few years and no one was talking about 3d printing. Give it 50 years. Then what?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @10:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @10:42PM (#208257)

    Sure, but by then traditional manufacturing will also improve to mass produce better products for cheaper. Economies of scale and scope will always exist.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2015, @02:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2015, @02:47AM (#208319)

      Alternatively, "traditional manufacturing" will be exclusively done with 3d printers.