[snowwrestler]

I would argue that the virtual economy is already eclipsing the material economy, just not in the way you think of it. Compare the trends in value creation and employment between U.S. manufacturing and U.S. financial services.

Modern finance is largely computerized or computer-assisted arbitrage based on asymmetric information...the "objects" being traded are virtual. And over the past 20 years it has greatly outpaced manufacturing in job and value growth.

And this does not even consider the growth in product design and software products and services, which are also virtual.

edit: I a word.