Hal Varian: recommendation

Transcript context

…Here’s a science fiction question: Do you ever think about a zero-marginal-cost society? Say there’s a universal replicator with super cheap energy, and in essence, all wealth is held in the form of IP. Would that just be crazy? Or could it work somehow? Well, there’s this wonderful book, a favorite of mine, called Midas World. I don’t know if you’ve ever read it, but I would recommend it. I think it’s out of print now. But it’s about a world where, basically, robots have become so efficient and produce so much stuff that people are assigned consumption quotas. You have to consume a certain number of shoes per month. You have to consume a certain amount of food and a certain amount of this. And the poorer you are, the bigger your consumption quota is, which I think is nice, obviously satirical. But it’s a very entertaining book because they work through this premise of how this all goes. I was about to tell you how it all worked out, but I’m afraid it will be a spoiler. So I’ll leave that for your discovery later on. Which feature of the 19th century do you think about or admire most often?…

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