The Economic End Game
Why the World will Die according to First Principles
There’s one thing that has me really worried, and it mostly worries me because not enough people worry about it:
How can computers and robots liberate us, when prices keep on rising?
There’s no doubt manufacturing of products and services will continue to be automated, through either code or robots operating on A.I. Doing work smarter makes life cheaper and cheaper. People can stay home, because they’ve become obsolete. In a world where prices are dropping through technological deflation there exists no problem. A utopia to look forward to.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where we transact and save in fiat money. There is also no doubt that the monetary supply of currencies shall continue to expand as governments continue to pile on debt. But they’re doing it at such a rate that the deflationary gains through technology are cancelled. By all means, life should have been cheaper after 30 years of advances in automation through Internet and computing. At minimum, a 20 hour work week should have been the standard by now in 2023.
But we don’t see this. We’re working longer and longer, and the freedom life feels further away than ever. And it’s because the legacy monetary system keeps us chained in slavery. By expanding the monetary supply, our currencies are being devalued every year by around 15%, erasing all gains made through technology.
Now, something will go wrong one of these days. As robots will take work out of the hands of people, how are we going to survive in a world of rising prices? Governments shall try to “save” the ones who will lose their jobs, promote unions, and stop the deflationary collapse.
Though such a rescue might seem noble, it is the government that is to blame for cost reductions not accruing to society in the first place. By inflating the money supply, they have skimmed off the wealth from the masses, and in the process increased prices across the board.
This will come to a head. We are already in the crisis. Technology will win. And fiat money shall die. It has been dying for decades. But now we will enter a phase where the authorities will have to resort to stranger and stranger measures to keep the fiat system alive. Tax the robots, tax the rich, UBI, CBDCs, CPI rigging, Neo-Luddism, social plans, subsidized jobs, bailouts, government backed companies. Just to preserve jobs, even if they are inefficient and lead to more expensive products.
Dual Detriment
The absurdity of our situation is best captured in the Dual Mandate of the US Central Bank, the Federal Reserve:
- Maximum Employment
- Stable Prices
The natural course of prices under advancing technology is down, i.e. attempting to achieve stable prices is a cruelty (worse: prices go up!). Technology liberates our time, so enforcing maximum employment is another evil. The mandate sounds valiant, but it is destruction incarnate. Fed policy is fully opposite to the nature of tech and the freedom of men. Who wants to be maximally employed? Wasn't the idea behind using machines to work less?
The transition out of fiat money is what we should be worried about. Everything else is insignificant. For fiat is the main variable causing all our societal issues. Yet, almost nobody sees it.
Likely, governments won’t do anything and will let the matter escalate. That’s been their m.o. since forever. Waiting for them is a mistake. Not acting on this greatest issue of our time will render you poor and makes you a target for government gaslighting.
Hence, some of us have already jumped ship and found refuge in anti-inflationary money.
Hopefully, when more find the solution, the world can rebirth itself, avoid doom, and put humanity back on the path towards freedom, peace, and prosperity again.
