We Have a Distribution Problem

I used to think that when 3D printing got to the point of printing at the molecular level, we’d be able to pass into a post-scarcity phase of society.  As with the Start Trek replicators, people could just print anything they need; food, water, clothing, televisions, etc.   

What I didn’t realize at the time was that we’re already living in a post-scarcity world, we just have a distribution problem. 

We’re already at the point where we either do or can, depending on the source, produce enough food to feed the world.  We have nearly three empty homes for each homeless person in the US.  We have so many clothes, we literally can’t give them away. 

If you want to get more mundane, we have three tv’s per household and nearly a hundred cell phones per capita. 

We have everything we could want or need in abundance and yet, there are still so many desperately wanting in the midst of that abundance.  This distribution problem is rooted in the same place as the extreme income inequality we see in our society.  We’ve decided to utilize markets as our means of distribution.  Let me emphasize “decided” as there is nothing inherently natural about using markets.  They’re just another human-derived economic tool, and they’re not the only one. 

I’ve written before about our growth problem.  That really goes hand-in-hand with this problem.  If we want to curb the havoc we’re wreaking on our environment, and step into our utopian post-scarcity future, we’ll need to figure out a way to divorce prosperity from growth.  A good place to start would be to figure out how to more equitably distribute the embarrassment of riches we already have in a way that benefits everyone.