I like this term…
Post scarcity or post-scarcity describes a hypothetical form of economy or society, often explored in science fiction, in which things such as goods, services and information are free, or practically free. This would be due to an abundance of fundamental resources (matter, energy and intelligence), in conjunction with sophisticated automated systems capable of converting raw materials into finished goods, allowing manufacturing to be as easy as duplicating software.
But language around it needs to be reconsidered so that it becomes positive instead of negative. Both “post” and “scarcity” are negative words, meaning essentially “after lack.” What happens then is certainly a fundamentally important issue. But we should simply think past the terms we need now to terms we’ll need later. How about something like “value abundance” instead of “post-scarcity”? Seems more direct and to the point. I also have been using the phrase “thank you economics” to refer to an abundant gift-giving society. Any other good terms floating around out there?
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I agree that “post scarcity” is bad. Scarcity will always be there, its something we create. I remember being at a thing where the Hare Krishnas were giving away free food on the street. Lots of people took it, then threw it on the ground in the surrounding blocks because they weren’t actually that hungry (but hey it was free) or they didn’t like it. So in a world with free food, places to live where people didn’t throw food on the ground nearby would be more scarce. If robots cleaned it up, there would be something else, like intelligence or physical beauty that was in demand so it would be coveted and there would be scarcity. Scarcity goes with diversity. I like “value abundance” because it implies abundance is there, but doesn’t claim scarcity isn’t there.
{See also: http://baltimorefreestore.org/ whose director, Matt Warfield, I am interviewing and hopefully soon meeting. I want to talk through these issues with him as he is directly acting upon them now}
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[...] Gift economies are based on abundance, wherein there are more than enough resources for all members of one’s tribe or social group, and sharing is the norm. Hunter-gatherer societies generally share(d) food as “a safeguard against failure of any individual’s daily foraging.” As another site explains: “More generally, in hunter-gatherer societies the hunter’s status was not determined by how much of the kill he ate, but rather by what he brought back for others.” [...]