Ted Rall for April 27, 2009

Transcript:

Woman: Brad Pitt's head in the form of bacon and chocolate. Yay! Man: Now that people can make anything from thin air, no one wants to pay for stuff! Businessman: The old rules no longer apply! In the new repli 2.0 economy, the winners will make more free stuff fastest! Professor: Sitting on your butt replicating things is unsustainable. Who will mine the coal to power the electric plants needed for replicators? It's a bubble! Teenager: Cry yer whiny song, dinosaurs - me, I'm replicatin', not payin'! Teenager: Adapt or die, old timers! Americans love their replicators. But some worry about economic dislocation. No one knows how to monetize the new technology. No matter. Companies still invest in it. Economists warn that a terrible reckoning may lie ahead. For now, however, the repirati have won the argument with their pithy slogan: "Matter wants to be free."