THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

Given that these are still early days in this field, and that the
implications of the Information Revolution entail two paradoxically
opposing trends, what will be the final outcome? There is definitely
room here to project any one of our favourite dreams and
nightmares, and we will do some of that in the next chapter. Samuel
Becket's teasing remark comes to mind: 'Everything will turn out all
right - unless something foreseen happens.'
Distribution and retail
The Net is already completely altering the economics of the gigantic
distribution and retail sector, by far the largest employer. In
cyberspace, more and more people are comparison shopping and
purchasing at wholesale prices, with no more effort than clicking a
mouse. Instead of a retail economy with physical processes, we are
already well on our way towards a wholesale economy with digital
processes. In other words, the old way consisted of physically
moving a product from manufacturer to wholesaler, and then to the
retailer and finally to the consumer. In the new way, the middleman
deals only with information, makes it available to the consumer in a
palatable form, then communicates orders back to the manufacturer,
who ships the merchandise directly to the consumer (the Cendant
case study in Chapter 4 explains this process in detail). In such a
switch, nothing remains the same. The prices charged to the
consumer, for example, can be radically different.
Cheaper than wholesale
The following example provides a taste of things to come. You can
buy the Virtual Vegas Turbo Blackjack computer game in a store for
$29.95 or download it from the Net for $2.95 (one tenth of its 'normal'
retail price). The CEO of Virtual Vegas, David Herschman, has
figured out that, even with this drastic price reduction for the Net, he
still makes more money on a Net sale than on a retail sale. Each