How will our scarcity based economy handle the asteroid mining industry? With automation we created more products then demand, but to balance that out we created products with a short lifespan to keep cyclical consumption going. In addition we established this consumerism culture, where we seemingly need to buy e.g. a new phone every year. Will we go even further crazy when asteroid mining is fully utilized? Or will we finally find a balance?
As a reference a quote from Gan Mor (TVP).
If it was raining gold outside, everyone would run and collect the gold, but if the rain lasted for three years, people would sweep the gold from their houses – it would be worthless. In a state of abundance, products have no monetary value and can not be made profitable. Today, the means of production allow us to produce in such quantities that the products will be like that gold – that is, abundance can be achieved in almost every field. But the current economic system is wasting a lot of resources and causing a lot of pollution.