post-scarcity is kind of a misnomer; there will always be scarcity in something -- land and human labour will always be valuable.   Energy and other raw resources required by the replicators might be really, really cheap, but not free&#x2F;unlimited.<p>Imagine an economy where everybody has a Universal Basic Income of about $10M.  It&#x27;s post-scarcity, so there are replicators that can make anything, and energy is really cheap.   Robots mine and farm the asteroids using that cheap energy so all raw materials and raw food are really cheap.   By really cheap, I mean about the same price as now.   So you&#x27;ve got $10M a year in income, and can buy a car for about $500.<p>- Land is crazy expensive.   There are billions of rich people bidding it up<p>- but you can rent an apartment for cheap since mile-high skyscrapers are easy to build<p>- human labour is crazy expensive -- who&#x27;s going to work for you unless you pay substantially more than $10M&#x2F;year?<p>- but people still need meaning in their life; most &quot;work&quot; is basically volunteer labour<p>Basically Star Trek.