A $120 Book, a $40 Cd

One other point on the creation of more loving goods, services and content is that mass market goods will become much more price differentiated. This is crucial for the growth of the quantum economy.

As it stands, a book, movie, cd or magazine is priced like any other book, movie, cd or magazine—based on the price it costs to produce and distribute the material part or the product. While this was appropriate during the material economy, it is becoming increasing irrational.

A prime rib at four different restaurants costs four different prices—from $12 to $50. There is no reason why a cd from four different artists all cost $14.99. Especially when three of them are disposable.

Once artists begin including a critical mass of love—as discussed in the previous post—in their creations, they will demand their due. There is no reason why a real musician would compete with the bubble gum variety.

Similarly, there is no reason that someone who writes an open, honest, revealing book would not charge four times what an ironic hipster’s novel would cost. There are simply too many mature, intelligent, wealthy people sitting home on a Saturday night because there is no movie that interests them. This is not because art is dead—or that nothing can reach them. This is because no one in their age group has seen it fit to charge what a real movie that reached this niche would cost to be profitable.

Even given this limitation there are fantastic examples of growing maturity, complexity, simplicity, and love in film. The cost of producing and distributing a movie (or book or cd) has come down, which has gotten us part way. The rest of the equation is raising the price on quality content to provide an incentive for artists to undergo significant growth between projects and take significant emotional risks. Love takes both time and money to grow.