Scarcity is an axiom of nature and resources. Price emerges where supply and demand converge; whether the currency is energy, time, or capital, there is one component in this entangled equation that’s always scarce in relation to another. Nothing is consumed in a vacuum, everything is a tradeoff. Scarcity is not a static value, it arises contextually through the lens of demand. An absence of supply with no demand or high demand with infinite supply both meet a similar pricing fate. This relationship is a correlation that’s constitutive: each element defines the other through mutual tension and healthy opposition. The 'post-scarcity' fantasy exemplifies a category error. It commits the same naive intellectual sin as someone alleging to have solved one side of a canonical duality: here is reward without risk, you may exploit without exploration, predator without prey, masculine without feminine. The qualities and character of each side is informed and molded by its dyadic counterpart; they are inseparable. These are all synergistic, countervailing agents where the presence of one is required for the existence of the other. A kind of equilibrium accounting within an Entwined system. A particularly pernicious assumption within this framework is that society becomes so abundant that price becomes an inferior means to facilitate distribution. This sounds innocuous enough on its surface, however it warrants extreme caution, as it implicitly requires alternative allocation methods that carry substantial political implications. When you encounter an advocate of post-scarcity economics, hear it as clearly as “post-entropy physics” or “post-mortality medicine”; while we inhabit these meat-bound earthly forms, there is no such thing. Without demand, scarcity is undefined. Without risk, reward is hollow. Without feminine, masculine has no orientation. These are load-bearing walls of the universe. Material Account Surplus, Romantic Account Deficit... New essay, see comments

Entwined The 'Post-Scarcity' Lie, Romantic Deficits, & Equilibrium Accounting Link: