i dont think they are mindlessly heading toward their own dethronement consitering they are the elite. elites tend to fail to understand their inferiors not fail to understand their own machinations

"shiny rocks" have nothing to do with it.

There is no such thing as a zero scarcity economy.

There is always scarcity.

then resources are the only thing of value

Nonsense.

tell me, what is the point of wealth?

and where does it come from?

Ingenuity and creativity are also of value. Not everyone has these traits.

okay, so art.

Pareto principle. 90%+ of art is worthless shit.

Only some art is valuable.

zero scarcity society discribes one where the base nessessitys of all humans on earth are met to an extent you dont actually have to produce human labor in order to provide them

all art is worthless

unless someone really really wants it

Tell Kanye that.

people really really want it

That's what makes something valueable?

If nobody wants something it doesn't have value.

I can't sell anyone a handful of lint.

look at the most "valuable" works of art. Most of it is just a place holder for money.

that is not to say there will be no objects of value within the society but a society that can suport its survival without ever needing to put effert toward that is a zero scarcity

a rich person said "i like this", paid money for it, then said its worth x.

Have you ever taken an economics course?

but it gives enjoyment. its beauty

and it just keeps getting traded around rich people for that much money

btw.. .since at the course of this debate: https://twitter.com/joerogan/status/1013918293600555009

Everyone would LOVE to have an army of servants

It's what gives labor value.

If we're being honest, it's what gave slaves their value.

there are plenty of expensive version of things that nearly identical or even worse quality than a much cheaper version.

Black slaves were property, always to be enslaved. That made them rather valuable.

why do brand names matter so much if the quality is the same in two versions of a product?

Irish slaves, however, were indentured servants. Indebted. The prospect of release made them less valuable

Which lead to Irish slaves being cheaper, more misused, and often bred with black slaves, since the mixed children would be considered black, and not Irish.

Moral of this tangent, Slavery was fucked up.

Excess "wealth" really only comes from a group of people, teaming up to all meet their basic needs, by each doing what they are good at. By specializing like this they stand a chance of producing more than they needed in some areas in the same amount of time as if they all did each area of work themselves.

im not sure what were talking about anymore

personally i dont trust automation, it beleive it at best disparages the working class if not outright destroys it.

worse case scanario this means that corporations are only witholden to consumers

idk, i think it would just change the nature of the working class. less working in fields and more lifting heavy pieces of robots to replace them