ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the abundance that already exists in the real or traditional economy, and then looks at how the digital revolution is already paving the way to abundance on an altogether different scale. Food consumption can be seen as a test case of how people react to abundance. The steady growth of the practice of consuming water in bottles promoted as branded goods is an interesting case of the impact of growing abundance. It provides a good example of the darker side of a post-scarcity world. Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. The term deflation is used to describe a general decline in prices. It is clearly the case that the emerging digital economy is a driver of abundance rather than of scarcity, creating new industries and radically new business models even whilst destroys traditional companies and ways of life. The result of all this has been a change in consumer expectations.
