X-Message-Number: 10888 Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 10:27:32 +0100 From: (John de Rivaz) Subject: money There is already a problem with industries marketing luxury goods and services. That problem is the customers' time, not their money. Already the source of customer-money is to all practical purposes infinite in some part so of the world. Customers are limited to the amount they will spend on hi-fis, personal music players and the such like because it consumes time to listen to them. That time competes with time spent gardening, enagaging in sports, eating out, going to public entertainment events and so on. That time is quite definitely finite - you can't get more than 24 hrs in a day, regardless of how long people live or how much money they have. If they are at the gymn they cannot be at the theatre at the same time. They cannot be using a computer, watching television and listening to a walkman at the same time. This probelm is likely to become more noticeable as technology advances and yet more opportunites appear to create leisure products anbd services. One already sees today a pheneomenum I call "time gazumping" - mailings re special offers that have to be bought within a limited time before they expire. ("This is your last chance", "open immediately", "time sensitive material enclosed" etc etc) What these traders is trying to do is to attract your *time* from competitors. There is a disturbing trend apparent in the marketplace in the UK, and probably more so in the US. That is to create a need for a service by legislation. There was a recent example locally - a small-business local industry had a regulation applied to it that seems sensible at the first glance. However in order to comply, they must be inspected periodically, and the cost of the inspection is UKP50. The government has created an agency which qualifies fee earning people who are allowed to charge this exhorbitant fee. Most people working in this industry (I forget extactly what it was, it *may* have been oyster beds) reckon to earn UKP3.50 per hour. If this trend is extrapolated into the future, money may be essential to placate protection racketeers of this nature. Mind you, I rather suspect that if this trend is not stamped out, technology will never be able to develop to a point where cryonics revival become possible, so don't lose too much sleep over waking up in such a society - you may simply not wake up at all :-) -- Sincerely, * Longevity Report: http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/lr.htm John de Rivaz * Fractal Report: http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm **************** Homepage:http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously, because giving information does not decrease your information. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10888