Consumer Choice in an Affluent Society : The Temporal, Spatial and Physiological Constraints and Their Implications

The present study intends to develop a framework for a new consumption theory that is pertinent to the economy in the age of artificial intelligence and robots. In the new framework, besides the monetary budget constraint, there are also temporal, spatial and physiological constraints on an individual's consumption, leading to a finite individual maximum non-vanity consumption. Human preference is modulated by human physiology and psychology, with only lower level human needs requiring consumption to satisfy. The finite individual capacity to consume and the finite needs for consumption imply that technological progress in artificial intelligence and robotics will dramatically decrease employment