1) If you add up all the gains from mining, and subtract all the costs, you think this number will be greater than zero?
Yes, ffs! Unless you think that the $1 billion market cap for Bitcoin is the cost of gear & electricity for the miners up to this point. (HINT: Daddy, where do Bitcoin come from? The miners make 'em, Explodicle, the miners.
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2) Do you or do you not think the number of miners will ever reach zero? If not, why are you describing what would happen when there are zero miners?
No. First, see the red text above. I am describing that scenario to show that your claim -- mining being a zero-sum game -- is patently stupid. I'm hoping to accomplish that by generating a contradiction. I fail. I get bored of repeating myself. I click the "Change Color" dropdown & choose red. Did i do any better this time?
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This isn't some electrical system, it's a real life economy with real scalability limits. No one cares about imaginary chalkboard economics - it's that same kind of thinking that predicts all rational actors will hoard a deflating currency.
Wrong. People who understand "chalkboard economics," collectively referred to as "the rich," care very much about "chalkboard economics." It's those who don't get "chalkboard economics," collectively referred to as "the poor," who do not. It's sad, it seems somehow unfair, and yet it remains true. These unfortunates often try to validate their simpleminded notions by wagering small amounts of newfangled money they don't quite understand. More fail and heartache, but such is the nature of free enterprise
