[zupreme]

This is the future. Copyrights and patents were really only effective when the means of production were out of the reach of the average person.

3D printing, digital audio, and other current technologies are almost certainly going to make copyrights only effective at stopping mass monetezation of copied content - not at stopping the copying and sharing of content for personal use.

3D printers in particular, I believe, will trigger the decimation of the scale model and toy markets as we know them. The only vestiges which are likely to survive will be those requiring a high number of moving parts, motorizations, and more.

[overgard]

I doubt the last claim; even if the materials were cheap enough you're dealing with a lot of assembly. If capitalism has taught us anything it's that people will pay for convenience. Plus packaging and branding are huge in those markets. Shopping for and opening the toy is like half the excitement!

[zupreme]

I agree. Toys which require a great deal of assembly effort will probably remain viable in the marketplace - for now.

But now that the 3d-printing door has been opened I do think there are already lots of smart people working on companion technologies to bridge the articulation and assembly gaps.

[knughit]

Except for well branded characters, toys already sell basically at cost of materials, thanks to Chinese manufacturing

[x5n1]

Does not make sense to say that most people will not have jobs and we will have minimum income, and then add that all the infinite goods will be limited in supply by law.

The whole point is yes we have no more jobs, and all the infinite goods are free to whoever wants them. The producers of the infinite goods live off either other business models or on structured income, perhaps determined by how much of their infinite goods are consumed by the public.