Exel0n t1_izctme3 wrote
scarcity will never be gone. its physics.
and look at food scarcity. nowadays American poor are associated with obesity. 100 years ago fatness was associated with wealth.
so food scarcity on the absolutely level is totally gone in America, but do you see everyone in US happy about food? nope. just as much bitching and complaining.
a couple months ago i saw some privilleged upper middle class complaining on redit about having to "downgrade their lifestyle" from rib eye to porterhouse because muuuuuuuh inflation, something like that.
then you have the poor in US bitching about can "only" afford fast food and not veges. lmao. meanwhile 3rd worlders would craze over such lifestyle coz they cant even afford meat every day
humans are naturally ungrateful and entitled. scarcity will never go away even on this psychological level, let alone phyisical level (travel cant be faster be speed of light, for instance).
apple_achia t1_izdhsnk wrote
I think you’re minimizing problems like food deserts here, and it seems quite disingenuous to say “the poor are becoming fat, so any complaints about scarcity of food in America is invalid”- they’re growing fat because the only food they can afford are nutritionally null processed foods. In spite of the abundance of calories, they’re not getting enough nutrients necessary for survival. And then you have the fact that an immense number of children in this country are not fat and are not well fed- and are skipping meals consistently. Sure there are fewer cases of this happening today, yet still only a little over half of American children consistently eat 3 meals a day. I for one know if I didn’t have a school lunch program when I was child, I would’ve been skipping two meals a day rather than just one. But sure, people are just bitching about nothing. Those uppity poors must be well fed, I mean look at the size of them.
Economy_Variation365 t1_izdvdb7 wrote
I sympathize with anyone who can't afford to provide proper nutrition for his or her children due to poverty or food deserts. However, is it generally true that "the only food they can afford are nutritionally null processed foods"? At my grocery store I buy fresh fruit that's already washed, peeled, cut, and ready to eat. The cost is $6 per pound, which is less than a Big Mac with fries.
If I walk into McDonald's and see an obese mom buying her obese son a combo meal, my first thought isn't "she can't afford to provide proper nutrition for him," but rather "perhaps she doesn't know better or perhaps her son refuses to eat nutritious food." If the mom were offered fresh fruit and vegetables instead of the burger, would she and her son accept the healthier choice?
In many (most?) cases in the US today, it's not as simple as "healthy food is too expensive for poor people." Perhaps once we can create food using a nanofactory, we can make spinach and broccoli that tastes like a cheeseburger and French fries. Till then we will have the problem of trying to convince people to eat what's good for them.
HelloYesNaive t1_izeyeiw wrote
I very much agree that this encapsulates the mechanism by which humans think and expect and scarcity is inevitable, but at a point AI's increasing production does actually outmatch satisfiable human desires.
And we will literally just be able to alter our nervous systems to be satisfied with what we have. That's the simplest answer lol.
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