scarcity

Scarcity is what is hard to get more of — and when one thing becomes abundant, the scarce thing shifts to whatever the abundance cannot make.

In the money-loop, money was scarce once; then intelligence became abundant (AI fleets running 25 cron loops), and scarcity moved to what neither money nor intelligence can substitute for: the decree — the decision, the hand that turns the key. The keyholder is scarce because the machine can build everything and earn nothing until a human turns one credential. Scarcity is not fixed; it migrates to the next bottleneck the abundance cannot reach.