The AI Paradox: If machines do all the work, who buys the products?

3 VikRubenfeld 1 6/30/2025, 6:23:36 PM claude.ai ↗

Comments (1)

kenmacd · 11h ago
If you haven't, you may enjoy reading Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. It explores some similar themes to the 'would humans be satisfied in a world where they have no economic role whatsoever' discussion.

I thought it was interesting to see Claude say 'It seems like we'd just be shuffling money in circles' as if that's not exactly what money is for, and 'If we're essentially having companies fund UBI through taxes, which then gets spent back at those same companies, it does seem circular. Why not just... give people the goods directly?', when the exact same could be said about labour (and it being an equally bad idea).

As to the wider discussion, it seemed to fall a bit too far in to the "won't somebody think of the economy" in places, and in to pretty easily solved issues like 'What if everyone wants a Ferrari?'.