In a world where its inhabitants are working and creating products which, not only service the civilization's needs, but build a greater abundance of new, cheaper and better products -- the cost of survival, and even the cost of luxury, should eventually move towards zero (deflate to zero). When the price of all world products are moving gently upwards ("slow inflation") you know at least one thing -- that that the world has bought into the wrong overall economic philosophy.

Over the millennia, as Humankind conquers the forces of nature that make life a struggle, life should become less of a struggle by definition. And indeed this IS slowly happening, as the quality of life for most in this year of 2002 is far superior than it was in the year 1001.

But it could be far better. We as a planetary race COULD be much farther along were it not for certain mentalities that have, in essence, hijacked the economic systems of the world and instituted various philosophies of greed and/or ignorance -- or who hold to obsolete paradigms. The current global fiat-fractional banking system is one prime example. The idea that it is "normal" for prices to continually go up has been so thoroughly indoctrinated into the public psyche people can see "reality" no other way.

I would think that a better scene for a world that is heading in the correct economic direction might be this: SUCH AN ABUNDANCE OF PRODUCTS AND MEANS OF PRODUCTION THAT THE MARGINAL COST OF EACH NEW PRODUCT APPROACHES ZERO. Thus, the goal might be a world where the marginal cost of ALL material possessions is zero, or approaches zero. In other words, all material possessions are FREE and thus there is no longer a need for a so-called medium of exchange for material wealth. A world is either headed in this direction, or some other direction. An individual is either living in a world where material possessions go infinitely UP (inflation) or go infinitely DOWN (deflation). Either the world's people (or some percentage of them) are working together to remedy the scarcity of material possession, or they are not. If they are, products will eventually cost zero dollars. If not, products will eventually cost infinite dollars. This is not my opinion, it's simple calculus.

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