# What would a post-scarcity society be like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 12, 2009, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538 "2009-06-12T07:51:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/41 "2009-06-14T03:07:02Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > [hijack]Have you tried ModX? I found it a lot easier than Joomla.[/hj] I might next time. If there _is_ a next time. If I’m going to be looking up codeheads’ asses the rest of my life, I’m not doing any more information design. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/42 "2009-06-14T03:33:07Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > One thing I don’t see anyone addressed - as I pointed out in the OP, currently, the people leading the self-fabbing fabber effort are already doing it Open Source. So you have to postulate that the megacorps will steal a march on an ongoing effort that they don’t currently seem all that inclined to do to date. Two problems with using the open source model for your world. First, we don’t live in a post-scarcity world today, so open sourcers do need to get paid. Second, open source project are not done by guys in their basements. Open Office is supported by Sun. Linux is supported by a whole bunch of companies who have a business reason to get out from under Windows. Sure these things can get contributions from all over, but they would fall flat on their faces without some kind of support - though a foundation. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/43 "2009-06-14T03:39:17Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Not necessarily; steps could actually be taken to protect DRM much more voraciously than currently are being taken. It could be protected by hardware, for example - and if the hardware was protecting the data all down the chain, it would be very difficult to crack. A certain set of people would scream bloody murder, of course, but most people would only care if it impeded their use of it. And given that the protesters would all be labeled as hackers and pirates, I think it would be politically possible to distribute fabricators that only ran on hardware cards. (Which would be functionally like those old cartriges for nintendo - a bit of a pain to copy. And you could make the fabbers detect and refuse to fabricate fabber spec cards!) There is a big difference between the DRM we have now and what there would be in this society. DRM is for the protection of copyright today. This situation is more like patent protection. If you want a movie, only an exact copy will do. If you want an iPhone, someone can reverse engineer it and produce as many as they want without having to worry about DRM. Just like the many clones we get today. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/44 "2009-06-14T03:44:02Z")
There is going to be two significant scarce items in any such society - fame (or egoboo if you prefer.) The person who designs the item everyone wants to reproduce will get all the hot chicks or hot guys - and more importantly, will get a bunch of talented people who will work on the next project. You might also get fame for editors and reviewers. Anyone and his brother can publish a book on the web today, for free, but the ones blessed by a publisher still get the eyeballs, in general. Which leads to the second scarce item - time. Even if we don’t have to work, there are still only 24 hours in a day. We already have more free content than we can ever read on the web. Whoever helps people use their time more efficiently will also get fame. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/45 "2009-06-14T09:04:45Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > I’m with **Blake** in questioning the value of discussing this. Is there really a prospect of the elimination of scarcity? I already qualified what post-scarcity means as a term of art. We’ve moved on already. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/46 "2009-06-14T09:28:42Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > First of all, there is no such thing as a “post-scarity” society. Your RepRaps still require raw materials. Those are finite. RepRap is currently looking at using bio-synthetic polymers as feedstock. Those can be engineered from waste, so while finite, hardly scarce. It’s post-scarcity, not post-finite. > [@](#): > > You (I assume) can’t RepRap biological items like cows and grain. No. But we can produce proteins etc from waste, too. Vat-grown steaks are not that far away. Hell, mycoprotein meats are here already. > [@](#): > > Intelectual property also has value. And where do people live? Already addressed this - not saying post-all-scarcity, merely post-material-product-of-labour scarcity. > [@](#): > > Look how major innovations changed scarcity in the past - the industrial revolution, the computer, globalization. Many jobs disappeared forever, however that freed up labor to pursue other tasks and the standard of living increased for everyone overall. Technology also gives people the opportunity to pursue interests they might not have been able to pursue before because it was too expensive. That’s what we’re extrapolating, ISTM. What happens when former labourers (and I mean blue-collar workers, mostly) have _nothing but_ free time? > [@](#): > > One thing I don’t think has been mentioned is that such technology would allow the creation of a sort of mechanical engineering YouTube. Combined with relatively cheap CAD/CAM design software regular people could tinker around with all sorts of ideas for stuff at almost no cost. That’s one of the questions I’d like considered. I mean, would there be fashions in fabbed goods? Different sources with different styles? > [@](#): > > You are still going to have corporations. RepRapCo being one of the biggest, equivalent to Microsoft, WalMart or General Electric. But RepRapCo is Open Source. That changes things, like I wouldn’t consider any Linux companies to be MegaCorps, even if they are profitable companies. > [@](#): > > There would be other industries as well. Farming and agriculture wouldn’t disappear (can’t RepRap meat). _Can_ RepRap machines that grow “meat”, though. But agreed, will still need farms. > [@](#): > > Neither would service businesses that don’t sell physical products. Entertainment would be huge. And manufacturing design companies wouldn’t disappear any more than YouTube made movie studios go away. Agreed. But will the economy supporting them still be the same as today’s? > [@](#): > > And what about healthcare? Definitely still necessary. > [@](#): > > Or energy? When I can feed my fabber with the materials to produce next-gen solar films, small wind modules, etc, how is energy going to be a problem? Anyway, cheaper energy is a necessary condition of the post-scarcity economy, so it’s already a given. > [@](#): > > You would probably have more lawyers than ever. What sort of liability would I incur if I designed something that other people ended up injuring themselves on? Not everyone has your country’s Byzantine tort law. What do you do if it’s an anonymous user originating from the L5 cluster satellite outside US (or any earthbound) jurisdiction? > [@](#): > > You would also have a huge underclass of low education, low skilled, uncreative people who don’t really bring much to the table. Kind of like today. I find that kind of classism pretty telling. Maybe they’re uncreative now because they don’t have the opportunity to be? I’ve seen what happens when poor and homeless people here get given a camera, some telephone wire or some paints - believe me, uncreative is not in it. > [@](#): > > They would have a much higher standard of living, but maybe a lot of there services are socialized. Maybe they have to rely on cheap government issued RepRaps using low-grade materials (which quickly identifies their status). And all they have to do is get the plans for a more expensive model. RepRap is about using readily-available materials anyway. There won’t be gold-plated vs plastic RepRaps, that makes no sense. > [@](#): > > Like today, they would bitch about losing their jobs in transportation or retail sales. I’m sure there will be a rough transition period. That’s the kind of thing I want us to discuss. Will it be something that gives rise to a permanent disaffected underclass, or will it burn itself out in a few years? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/47 "2009-06-14T09:40:22Z")
Simple fabricators won’t change our lives much more than things like desktop publishing and digital cameras did. Even with a true replicator that could make food and such, you still have energy limits. And possibility of making dangerous materials and weapons. Even without energy limits or dangers, there’s a scarcity of land. I guess you could get around that if everyone sent their consciousness online or had holodecks, or the population seriously declined. This post-scarcity needs very specific parameters to determine what it would be like. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/48 "2009-06-14T15:45:04Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I find that kind of classism pretty telling. Maybe they’re uncreative now because they don’t have the opportunity to be? I’ve seen what happens when poor and homeless people here get given a camera, some telephone wire or some paints - believe me, uncreative is not in it. Consider the source. **msmith** seems pretty much of a Social Darwinist: what, or who, is no use to the market is no use to society. In that scenario, the underclass could come to include lots of educated, literate, talented, even productive people that just made the wrong choices. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/49 "2009-06-14T15:59:28Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Simple fabricators won’t change our lives much more than things like desktop publishing and digital cameras did. > > Even with a true replicator that could make food and such, you still have energy limits. And possibility of making dangerous materials and weapons. > > Even without energy limits or dangers, there’s a scarcity of land. Actually, with plentiful energy ( not that hard if we go nuclear ) and replicators that can make food there wouldn’t be much of a land shortage. It’s farming that eats up most of the land we use. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/50 "2009-06-14T17:20:02Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > …there wouldn’t be much of a land shortage. . But there would be a shortage of land _in the places where people want to live_. Even if you can fab your own food, your own house and everything you need in life, there would still be millions of other people who want to do the same things, and in the same\* place\* as you. Just like today. Maybe it will be in New York, Paris & London , just like today. Or maybe everyone will want to live on beautiful mountainsides, or on beachfront locations. Some places will always be more popular than others, just like today. So there will be a pricing mechanism in place, and only the elite people who can afford to pay will be allowed to live there. Just like today… It may be a financial elitism, just like today. Or it may be a social elitism , just like today. But, not mater what the specific details are,human nature will still be human nature. Just like today. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/51 "2009-06-14T17:35:09Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > But there would be a shortage of land _in the places where people want to live_. The fact that one or two things like land use will still be somewhat scarce won’t keep society from drastically changing elsewhere. Most people in hi tech cultures spend most of their time indoors anyway. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/52 "2009-06-14T18:22:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The fact that one or two things like land use will still be somewhat scarce won’t keep society from drastically changing elsewhere. Most people in hi tech cultures spend most of their time indoors anyway. Yeah, but everyone wants to spend time indoors in cool locales. I could definitely see the cachet of being able to live in a major city going through the roof. For instance, I live in SF. There are a lot of people around who work in Silicon Valley and commute from here because it’s cooler to live here than in San Jose. However, there are also a lot of poorer people living in the city, generally with jobs inside SF. If those jobs suddenly evaporate (I don’t think all of them will, but certainly a lot of the low-end retail positions selling cheap, manufactured goods would disappear), I don’t know that they could afford living here. So, gentrification goes through the roof. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/53 "2009-06-14T18:47:15Z")
> [@runcible\_spoon](#): > > Yeah, but everyone wants to spend time indoors in cool locales. I could definitely see the cachet of being able to live in a major city going through the roof. For instance, I live in SF. There are a lot of people around who work in Silicon Valley and commute from here because it’s cooler to live here than in San Jose. However, there are also a lot of poorer people living in the city, generally with jobs inside SF. If those jobs suddenly evaporate (I don’t think all of them will, but certainly a lot of the low-end retail positions selling cheap, manufactured goods would disappear), I don’t know that they could afford living here. So, gentrification goes through the roof. All of that is _ **artificial** _ scarcity though. Anyone who chooses, who just doesn’t care could just ignore it all and live somewhere else in nice conditions. As opposed to now, where most things are _ **innately** _ scarce; deciding that you don’t care about, say, brand name clothes doesn’t mean you get just-as-good clothes for free. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/54 "2009-06-14T20:22:36Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Consider the source. **msmith** seems pretty much of a Social Darwinist: what, or who, is no use to the market is no use to society. In that scenario, the underclass could come to include lots of educated, literate, talented, even productive people that just made the wrong choices. To a certain extent. I generally believe that “poor” is the default state. If you are unable to create your own wealth through personal innovation, hard work and initiative, you need to be able to provide something of value to those who do have wealth. Otherwise you are at the mercy of people to provide you charity out of the goodness of their hearts. It may actually be useful to define various classes in this future society and try and figure out who would be in those classes. [QUOTE=MrDibble] And all they have to do is get the plans for a more expensive model. RepRap is about using readily-available materials anyway. There won’t be gold-plated vs plastic RepRaps, that makes no sense.. [/QUOTE] I’m talking about the objects created by the RepRaps. If you are going to fabricate a gold statue, you need gold. If you are going to fabricate a titanium bicycle, you need titanium. Obviously these materials are expensive and not as available to poor people. Also, how do your fantasy RepRaps work? Current 3D printers use a sort of polymer to bond particles together. It can’t create a solid object in a sense that the object is one homogeneous material. An object created in a RepRap has different physical properties than one created in a forge, mill or injection molding machine. So it may not be appropriate for all applications ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/55 "2009-06-14T21:12:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > All of that is _ **artificial** _ scarcity though. Anyone who chooses, who just doesn’t care could just ignore it all and live somewhere else in nice conditions. As opposed to now, where most things are _ **innately** _ scarce; deciding that you don’t care about, say, brand name clothes doesn’t mean you get just-as-good clothes for free. It’s not artificial scarcity in the usual sense (that is, something that’s withheld deliberately to increase price), and I’m not sure it’s so different from designer clothing. Let’s assume that there’s going to be a certain base cost to land in our post-scarcity world - property taxes and such. It’s pretty damn close to free to get land in the middle of nowhere, but costs go up as you get closer to cities. I’d argue that that’s fairly close to clothing - at least in most cities, if you don’t care about how you look, you can get very,very cheap clothes at charities, not to mention low-end thrift stores. My dad has worked for a couple of homeless shelters, and they always had a stock out-of-style clothes you could pick up for free. I don’t see a difference between that and your analysis of land value by location. Basically, in either case, you’re paying more to get something that: A) Fits you better, either physically or in lifestyle B) Looks nicer, with all the social prestige that that entails C) Is in better condition - presuming that the basically-free land post-scarcity needs some fixing up, even if it’s fairly easy/cheap I don’t think either of those scarcities is particularly artificial. People will want to live close to other people, and as long as the land to do so is limited, that’s a natural supply and demand. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/56 "2009-06-14T23:08:50Z")
If you asked average people in the 1600’s what a ‘post-scarcity’ society looked like, they’d probably say if you had enough gruel to eat without having to work the fields 16 hours a day, and if everyone had their own 300 sq ft hut with good protection from vermin and the elements. That would be heaven. What more could you want? Maybe throw in some decent garments and a nice set of cooking bowls. If you asked average people in the 1800’s what a post-scarcity society looked like, they might say if everyone had a small farm, with a fine horse for each person, decent food, some nice looking, durable clothing, and some way to eliminate the drudgery of washing clothes, dishes, and other routine maintenance. Perhaps an icebox that never needs to be replenished with ice. Indoor plumbing would be awesome. If you asked the average person in the early 1900’s what a post-scarcity society might look like, they might say a car for everyone, a nice 1000 sq foot home, unlimited fruits and vegetables, and access to good dental care and medicine for everyone. If you had asked Karl Marx if the worker’s paradise would be upon us when everyone has a home with air conditioning, central heat, television, easy transportation, and access to good education and health care, I’m sure he’d have said yes. Today, people living at the poverty line have standards of living far beyond what anyone could even have imaginged until maybe 100 years ago. They can have computers, a car, television, internet, all forms of other entertainment, access to cheap fruits and vegetables from around the world, cheap clothing that is nevertheless more colorful, comfortable, and longer lasting than the garments kings wore 100 years earlier. In the 1950’s, the average middle class home was under 1000 square feet. Today, it’s closer to 2000. The average household has more than one television, more than one computer, more than one bathroom. They have access to unlimited free entertainment on the internet, in public parks, access to free books at public libraries, telephones in their pockets to stay in instant contact with anyone in the world, Is there any sign that people are happy enough with that they have? Has upward mobility stopped or slowed down because the poor realize they’ve really got enough? Nope. Fruit used to be luxury for the rich. Today, everyone can afford it. Does that mean people are happier or more content? If buying fruit represented a day’s wage 100 years ago, do people choose to work a day less today now that they can buy the same fruit for half an hour’s labor? The nature of mankind is to always want more. To strive to be better, to improve your lot and that of your children. If common goods become so cheap they are essentially free, the rich will want their own private islands or they’ll take up all the beautiful real estate spots, and the average person will begin to feel that they will not be happy until they too have access to such prime real estate. Here’s another example of the nature of humans - how come billionaires still work? They can have pretty much everything they want, and always will. They are wealthy enough for their children and grandchildren to never have to worry about money. So why don’t they quit and spend the rest of their lives sniffing the roses? For that matter, why do any of you who make more than 100K or so keep working hard to earn more? Why don’t people who are reasonably well off seek to work part-time and have more relaxation time? There will never be a post-scarcity society. The things we value will change, for sure. But we will always want more than we have. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/57 "2009-06-15T01:49:03Z")
I’ll come right out and say I don’t believe in a post-scarcity society. People want two things in life: a. what other people have; b. what other people _might get_. We will have scarcity at the center of life as long as human nature gets anything at all out of Schadenfreude; as long as competition relishes the other guy losing as much as it does winning; as long as little kids play keep-away and there is one economist left arguing the zero-sum theory. People are going to search tirelessly for scarcity, _make_ scarcity if they have to, and enrich themselves - _and others_ - through it. And always, _always_, at someone’s expense. Every winner creates a loser. Someone always has to go home with less than they came with, get sand kicked in their faces, or get ruined. We’ve been doing it so long, there _is_ no other way. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/58 "2009-06-15T03:59:29Z")
[Relevant thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=466663) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/59 "2009-06-15T04:09:04Z")
[Another relevant thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=264849) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538/60 "2009-06-15T06:50:42Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m talking about the objects created by the RepRaps. If you are going to fabricate a gold statue, you need gold. If you are going to fabricate a titanium bicycle, you need titanium. Obviously these materials are expensive and not as available to poor people. Ah, I see - well, I hardly think luxury goods are the best end-points defining post-scarcity. Like I said, it’s not post-al-scarcities. > [@](#): > > Also, how do your fantasy RepRaps work? > > Current 3D printers use a sort of polymer to bond particles together. Not all - some use [extrusion of a polymer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fused_deposition_modeling) itself to form the object. It’s as solid as something milled from a piece of the same plastic. > [@](#): > > An object created in a RepRap has different physical properties than one created in a forge, mill or injection molding machine. So it may not be appropriate for all applications True. But there are also computerised milling, cutting, etc, machines, which a next-gen fabber can also produce. I’m not saying a next-gen fabber can turn out every product a consumer would need. What I am saying is that a next-gen fabber would enable the means of production to be orders of magnitude cheaper. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-post-scarcity-society-be-like/499538.md?page=4)