RyansWorld: Cost-performance ratio

'''Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.'''

According to futurist Raymond Kurzweil, products start out as highly ineffective and highly expensive.

Summary
Gradually, products become more effective and cheaper until they are highly effective and almost free to buy. Some of the products that have followed this example include AIDS medications (which are now affordable to the majority of AIDS sufferers), text-to-speech programs, and digital cameras. However, products that rely primarily on paper (i.e., newspapers and toilet paper) and/or fossil fuels (i.e., electricity in most countries and petroleum gasoline for automobiles) have only increased in price.

This directly contradicts the trend of electronic gadgets like netbooks, desktop computers, and laptop computers that also have been decreasing in price. However, the prevailing inflation rate of a country or province/state may negate the plummeting costs of software, AIDS medications, and/or digital cameras in certain regions along with certain governmental policies. This has the effect of keeping costs high in certain areas while they are dramatically reduced in others.

In theory, this means that the rich people have access to highly inefficient technologies, medical treatments, and therapies (that are prototypical in nature) while the poor get access to these same products when they become more efficient and easier to manufacture several years down the road.