That means the end of capitalism as we have known it since the 12th century. It means that we shall have to devise a new accounting system not based on price and locate new incentives in a non-material order. We face an epoch of bewilderment as we inch our way towards the gift economy of the future. As the opening pages of any economic textbook will tell you, capitalism turns upon the fact, the assumption, of scarcity. And supply and demand presuppose scarcity.
Scarcity mediates the whole system.
Abolish scarcity and capitalism collapses. When scarcity is threatened, drastic steps have to be taken to restore it. Look at the history of butter mountains and wine lakes. This is the real story behind the Rover and Ford crises. A new dread word is in circulation in the City - deflation.