system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Transmetropolitan] With the makers it is possible for for any matter to be turned into basically any other substance or object. How is there still poverty and need?

The makers in Transmetropolitan use "base material" (which I'm assuming is just a highly dense cube of some matter) to make almost anything conceivable.


Yet it's also shown that they do not need this base material, people can (and do) scavenge trash to fuel their makers. It's said that most middle-class families have a maker.
With the ability to turn anything into anything else it's a real headscratcher to me how there's still preventable disease, energy problems, hunger or any need at all in that universe.


Why does the Long Pig restaurant grow humans in vats when they could just make human flesh in the maker?


Hell, how do their markets and economy even operate when you can make almost anything conceivable at home?
gpt
Post-scarcity technology doesn't change human nature, and it's still human nature to muddle through rather than make perfect decisions. Lots of people are still selfish, or crazy, or transitioning into an alien species. 

To truly eliminate suffering, you'd need to remove the human capacity to suffer. And if we're all just clouds of nanotech, could you really call us human?