Digital Goods can easily be made abundant. We see the rapidly expanding
trend which will make all of these abundant in the near future. Competition from free
and abundant digital goods providers will soon be so intense that very few digital
goods will not be free and abundant in some form.
Digital Services are often free and abundant now. Examples such as email, online
chat, video and phone service, educational services, etc. are available at no cost.
Other services have often been drastically reduced in price.
Traditional services are abundant but are not yet free. They have been vastly
improved using the latest technology and methods. Many services are starting to be
handled by computers such as travel, securities trading and real estate services.
Due to the decimation of jobs in the manufacturing sector of the economy, more and
more workers are turning to the service sector to find jobs. Due to the internet and
computerization, many service jobs are also being sent overseas where labor is cheaper.
Jobs such as customer service, computer programming, etc. are often now done in
India and other foreign countries. More jobs that do not require a physical
presence (lawyers, accountants, radiologists, lab technicians, etc.) will be sent to foreign
countries in the future. Business startup costs in the service sector
are often very low so many new service businesses have been formed.
Traditional services will often be replaced in the future by people taking
care of their own needs. The tools and equipment of craftsmen are now much more
affordable and owned and used by many more do-it-yourselfers. There will be abundant
free knowledge available to allow people to perform services previously only done
by professionals. Service robots are still in their infancy but will eventually
help with needed services. Increases in leisure time will allow people to spend
more time helping themselves.
Physical Goods such as consumer goods have often been reduced in price while
being made more functional. Much of the factory labor for producing these goods
has been outsourced to countries with very low wages. This has caused an immediate
benefit to consumers in wealthy countries while undermining the ability of the
working class in the wealthy countries to make a decent living. Currently there
is a huge markup from the manufacturing cost to the consumer price. This markup
will be drastically reduced as online merchants provide more competition to traditional merchants.
Physical Goods will be increasingly produced by automated factories and robots.
The knowledge, processes and methods for producing physical goods will become more
and more commonplace worldwide so the labor needed to produce physical goods will
often come from the poorest areas of the world. The cost of most consumer goods
will fall rapidly.
Energy will undergo a major transformation. Due to global warming,
fossil fuels will be rapidly replaced with true renewable energy such as solar,
wind and tidal. Atomic power will also be used temporarily to replace needed
energy supplies that formerly came from fossil fuels. It makes little environmental
sense to destroy natural areas to plant biofuel crops or to turn human food into fuel
for large pleasure vehicles while people are starving.
Energy demand will tend to decrease in the future. People will spend more time
enjoying abundant digital goods and services. Due to global warming, there will be
laws preventing waste of energy just like many communities in the drier parts of
the United States currently have laws against wasting water. Citizens will not only conserve
energy but will also produce energy through solar and wind generation.