The Dead Economy Theory
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A wide-ranging essay arguing that AI's financial model requires labor replacement at civilizational scale, creating a self-defeating 'dead economy' where companies eliminate the workers who are also their customers. Drawing on economists like Acemoglu, Frey, and Piketty, the author traces three turns: AI-driven layoffs boost stock prices, displaced workers cut spending, and companies lose their customer base. The piece critiques the philosophical shallowness of Silicon Valley's longtermist and rationalist frameworks, invokes Camus's argument against sacrificing present people for hypothetical future gains, and warns that 'so-so' AI deployed for stock-price reasons may cause mass displacement without commensurate productivity gains. It also highlights the political danger: democratic leverage depends on labor, and an economy that doesn't need human workers removes the material basis of democratic governance.
