Economic history has been dominated by basics: growing food & fuel, mating & child rearing, fighting wars, clothing & shelter, worrying about afterlife. Occasionally there have been major agricultural surpluses, which have been spent in a bizarre variety of ways (thread) /1
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Agricultural surpluses have been spent on military parades, crown jewels, tall cathedrals, vast priesthoods, gigantic tombs, arrays of monoliths, treasure fleets, moon shots, & a dizzying variety of other things. /2
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These seem like irrational bubbles, yet in many cases persisted for or recurred across centuries or millennia. We moderns seem to be trending towards competitions for scholastic credentials & efforts at longer & healthier lives, each of which appeal to insatiable needs. /3
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Replying to @NickSzabo4
Would you say this change is a good thing or bad thing? Or are we justified in judging this new trend?
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It's an extremely nice & historically unprecedented thing to have such astronomical luxury of choices, but it (along with other unique aspects of modern society, such as large social scales) also make for many novel problems we can't even begin to know how to address.
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