Fiction:Beyond Currency: The Post Scarcity Society

''Written by guest writer Allar Terum'Shapo. vol. 233, iss. 210 of Modern Economist. 27th June, 2801''

For the past thirty years one phrase has cropped up in economic circles; the end of currency. More and more nations appear to be discarding what is being considered an archaic concept, so I guess the question for some is what is a world without the concept of a paycheck like? Where everything is available to you and nothing is beyond your reach?

I suppose the first thing that disappears is intrinsic value. For many economies, gold, platinum and and diamonds have traditionally been some of several materials and products that have been considered valuable since archaic times primarily due to their rarity augmenting their attractiveness. So I suppose in a society where such materials are so abundant that they are no longer rare, these materials lose the value they once had from being rare. The result however is that these once-valuable and highly prized materials become comparable to broadly-used materials such as tin or copper. Unfortunately when it comes to items with value directly tied to rarity such as fine jewellery with painstakingly well-cut gems, such items lose a lot of their value aside from what is estimated from being appealing to the eye (although I will not lie that sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes to quality judged by the naked eye).

Not everything can be infinite in abundance. But the quantity of that limited number still ties in to what I stated above. There are only so many sites to be developed to provide a specific view, there are only so many seats at a performance house for one given performance and there are only so many taxis darting though the streets of the many metropoli of the gigaquadrant. The finite number can be inflated by virtual media such as holoprojections and virtual conferencing but for some people there's no substitute for sitting there in person or having a house at that very location. So with this in mind the demand for the physical could go down but it won't disappear.

But I suppose one big question is why the abolition of currency is such a big deal. I have outlined above that whether or not something is valuable depends on how rare and prized it is, the rarer it is, the more we want it. And the more easily its owners can boast about it. But at its most fundamental level remember that currency is a method of exchange; many currency-based economies used it as a way to more efficiently facilitate the exchange of goods as was prevalent in a barter-based economy. Barter-based evolved into currency based because not everyone had the means to rear Olostian chickens and not everyone wanted Olostian chickens as a means of compensation for the deck chairs they make, for instance. Currency served as a way for buyers to get what they wanted without requiring a specific kind of product ie. so many hens' eggs for so many grams of cheese. What this means is that trade on all levels became much more flexible. Currency became the benchmark of measuring prosperity.

So how does one measure prosperity when this benchmark is made obsolete? Probably a means different from what has come before or perhaps something closer to prosperity in barter economies where prosperity is measured by the health of the person, the quantity (and perhaps crafted quality) of their possessions and their social connections. In short, while the value of their assets may no longer be a measure of success, the quantity may still be.

So in summary a post-scarcity society is perhaps one where the value of a material is based on its qualities and its attractiveness - metals used in aesthetics such as jewellery would be somewhat low-value as the rarity of the materials is no longer a factor - there might still be a market for wanting the real thing but there might be popularity in using holographic technology to "be" at a locale or a venue. So perhaps aesthetic in a no-money economy has nothing to do with gold or gems but instead the beauty of the image portrayed. Fashion is similar; its the latest and perhaps the most stark designs that are preferred over the use of expensive and once-hard-to-attain materials such as gold or silver thread.

 - Allar Terum'Shapo is a senior market analyst for Atallis Advertising