The value of hand-crafting (and other forms of direct human labor involvement) in an (unevenly) post-scarcity economy is well portrayed in Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_. The book annoys me because its plot hinges on one stupendously implausible detail of the setting, but other than that it's an amazing read. (And many of his books have that property. He's basically the patron saint of fridge logic.)

On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 8:51 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 11:40 PM, Joseph Paul <xxxxxx@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
What won't be cheap?

Genuine handcrafted items.

A trader could probably make a decent living importing things like handmade leather items, handthrown pottery and handsewn quilts. As least he could, so long as he could document that they really were handcrafted. Because an advanced automated factory could make such items with the same sort of random minor differences and imperfections which true handcrafting would yield . . .

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
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"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.
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