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To: AnotherUnixGeek
"Who exactly is going to buy all these goods and services automation produces when everyone is out of work due to automation?"

Lots of people asking that exact question. I posted a couple of articles on that topic this week:

The Future of Capitalism, Work and Society>
X ^ | April 14, 2026 | Mo Gawdat (interview); Dustin

The AI Layoff Trap
Economics > Theoretical Economics ^ | March 21, 2026 | Brett Hemenway Falk, Gerry Tsoukalas


It's a weird game...so many companies rushing for this "next big thing land grab" but, in the end, if "successful", nobody will have any income to buy anything and these companies will be out of business.

I've yet to read a good solution to this dilemma.

13 posted on 04/15/2026 9:58:00 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ( )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“I’ve yet to read a good solution to this dilemma.

You know the solution , Elon has said it a number of times. You just don’t like it.

The solution is a choice either we have a society full of permanently unemployable people not unemployed know the difference. Which leads to massive social unrest and eventually armed revolution. Remember people get to vote and they will vote in communism if you make it where every one is forced into poverty and being unemployable.

So the choice is tax the companies some form of VAT tax equal to what human labor would be worth to make the cost equal for replacing a human with AI thus removing the incentive.

The other choice is a tax on the companies at a fixed rate and UBI to all the unemployable people.

Doing nothing and letting corporations make a whole generation or two unemployable is a recipe for armed revolution and real communism when. You think antifa is bad now make all the genZ impoverished and unemployable the conflict will happen quickly, you think the mayor of NYC is bad wait till 30 million genz and younger millennials can’t door dash and Netflix because AI made them surplus. The party that says hey we are doing UBI as soon as we are in power wins that in a landslide.

There is a reason China is all in on AI they know it brings global communism by default.


37 posted on 04/15/2026 11:57:28 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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