Headline of a scientific article claims an asteroid is so rich in gold that if mined would make every person on Earth a billionaire.
Yeah, just like those African villages "helped" by Mansa Musa.
The only thing that would happen is that gold itself would become cheap.
Indeed they are more astronomers than economists. Economy is science.
But I would like to see that gold on Earth due to the scientific advancements we could achieve with cheap gold. Like in electronics.
Although cheap silver could do miracles with energy transport.
Do you think the asteroid miners would share their wealth? They would manage the gold supply like countries manage oil to their own advantage.
They wouldn't simply "share".
They would have to use/sell all that gold at some point. Otherwise the whole endeavor would be useless as it would be wasting billions of dollars just to fill a box with a collection of metal bars.
As with the oil they could control it and still get rich. The price might still come down due to the extra supply. Some rich people don't like to share. Wealth is obnoxious if stored in large quantities. A bit like cow shit :)
I guess it's all narrative too apart from strict supply and demand. The perception of gold could be devalued.