OT: Economics (was: Storing secrets...)

[Robert J. Hansen]

> Nonetheless, it gets incredibly close. I wonder if there might be a cost involved with acquiring anything -- at the very least, you have to make the decision to acquire it.

Necessarily there must be.  Free trade depends on value differentials, after all.  If I have a candy bar that I think is worth $1, and you have $1 that you think is worth a candy bar, I keep my candy bar and you keep your money.  Neither of us has any incentive to make a trade: stasis results.  If I think the candy bar is worth $0.99, and you have $1 that you think is worth a candy bar, we're going to make the trade because it's in both of our interests to do so.

If both parties agree on the true value of something -- no matter what that value is -- trade doesn't happen.  For you to buy my cubic meter of space somewhere near Betelgeuse, even if I value it at nothing, you must value it at something.  And, as you've said, the prestige of owning a cubic meter of space near Betelgeuse might be worth an awful lot.