Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Economic Wealth

Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by clairity on Friday March 01, 2019 @01:57PM (#19284118)

the "money from nowhere" phrase is a bit disingenious. in many cases, money is being redirected from an old industry into the new marketplace--from taxis to uber, from hotels to airbnb, from recruiters to indeed, etc. sure, there is some incremental added value that's "new money", but unless it also generates new jobs to employ the un-/under-employed, that money is being funneled from another part of the economy (like being extracted from family savings or materialized through loans). and information asymmetries aren't being destroyed, so much as concentrated in the marketplace to extract rents (e.g., uber's opaque pricing).

and while free trade "works" in a homogenous steady-state global economy, we're not there yet. there are a lot of dynamics (i.e., economic, social and political disparities) to work through before that happens.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by ardit33 on Friday March 01, 2019 @05:19PM (#19285893)

That's not how it works.

If a new platform or system enables efficiency, then it creates value.

eg. Textile machinery. One machine can replace 100 of workers, (and it maybe a negatives for those 100 workers), but it can increase the output 10x, hence now more people can afford decent and warm clothes and fabric. The society wins on the long term.

If you are a long distance horse-carriage driver on the 19th century, a train being built on your route, it might suck for you as it may put you out of a job, but it is great for other thousands of people that can do the same trip at 1/10 of the time and 1/5th of the cost.

Historically, tractors, cars, trains etc are the same story.... "online" is just another version of it.

Also, I remember most folks here, there are actually countries in the world where these online efficiencies don't exist. (online shopping, and credit cards are not in mass use). Unless your local shop have something you need, you are out of luck, and yes, life is usually worse for everybody in said countries.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by forrestthewoods on Friday March 01, 2019 @02:03PM (#19284152)

Wealth isn’t zero-sum. The world is radically richer compared to 30 years ago.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by moosey on Friday March 01, 2019 @04:47PM (#19285614)

Wealth is zero-sum. We've just been ignoring the ecological impacts of our economy since the industrial revolution. I think that the true mark of wealth is the amount of high density energy you can use: Those private jets, huge homes, yachts, etc. require massive quantities of energy to use.

Should the human race decide to fight climate change, for real, then it will be one of the greatest wealth equalizers of all time: we'll all end up a good deal 'poorer' than we were before.

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by matt4077 on Saturday March 02, 2019 @04:01AM (#19288361)

You're describing something, but it isn't "wealth". Or, if it is, it's useless.

And if wealth is zero-sum, how can we "all end up a good deal 'poorer' than we were before."? NB: that whole sentence seems to be missing an odd number of negations.

But here's an indicator you'll like: "Energy Intensity" is, basically, production / energy usage. This was surprisingly stable over most of the 20th century, lending some support to the gist of your objection. But, two good news: (1) it's now on a definitive downward trend, proving that thinking does produce value (yeah!). And (2) renewable energy is rising, meaning that energy usage is now decoupling from the harms you allude to (CO_2 et al).

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Re:Money Out of Nowhere: How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Ec... by moosey on Saturday March 02, 2019 @11:33AM (#19289849)

The main problem with that energy usage is energy density.

While electric vehicles will be about, I think that personal transport, as one example, will become quite rare.

Does that make us poorer? I don't actually think so. I sincerely believe that it will enrich our lives.

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