Money (was Re: Enlightenment

Followups were set to r.a.sf.written, but I believe (the part of) this
that I am responding to is on-topic for r.a.sf.composition, and I have
changed it. Graham's post appeared in r.a.sf.c so I'm snipping freely.

Graham Woodland <gray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

David Friedman wrote:

In article <460dad0d$0$14091$742ec2ed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"James Gassaway" <dtravel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I admit I don't know what form an economy would take in a real world
society with replicators but I can't believe that any current economic
models would apply.


You live in a real world society with replicators--software. Substantial
fixed cost of producing the original, negligible marginal cost of
producing copies, substantial variable cost of various sorts of
associated services.

That should give you at least some idea of how the expanded version
would work.


And *original* works of art and craft. You can replicate a copy of anything
someone else already commissioned or produced on spec; you can't, without
hiring someone for the purpose, commission something to your own wishes.

All that replicated stuff has to go somewhere, and planetary surfaces seem
to remain the habitat of choice for most people in ST at least; so living
and storage space remain a problem. If artificial habitat takes off in a

(snip)
Whether some items can be actually or legally replication-proofed, with the
specific intention of preserving their scarcity, is another software
parallel that might be interesting to explore. At least if the differences
with DRM as we know it were well worked out.

[assumed no-money economy -- necessity for police/defence etc. tasks to
be carried out by people]
end up requiring some degree of conscript 'social-service' State labour in
the absence of money, since many of the tasks involved would be boring and
repellent to most. Also, getting them done by anyone willing to do them
for free might not be a wise idea at all. I think retaining money, and
using it voluntarily to hire people of suitable talents, would likely be a
lot more popular than either of these alternatives...

What would they spend money on? Not everyone willing to be hired as a
policeman would want to spend his/her earnings on original artworks.

Maybe you have to buy a license to have children?

Jonathan

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Money
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