I see headlines and articles discussing how consumer spending is driving, or of late, possibly slowing, the economy. But if not for people buying non-essential products and services, what else would drive the economy? Everyone needs food, shelter, and clothing. Many need cars, depending on their location. But I take it that spending on necessities is not enough, especially non-consumable or long lasting things like houses and cars.
In: Economics
The dominant economic driver has changed many times in human history. Guessing what the next driver will be is tricky and complex as it is tied to both technology in the traditional sense and “economic” technology. If we could accurately predict those, we would be called visionary because it is so hard to predict and requires so many things to line up to achieve.
Let’s offer a wild technology option: humans hook up full time to VR (a la the Matrix) thereby drastically reducing their physical needs and resource consumption. The economy is now driven largely by virtual goods and computing power. But since virtual goods are essentially free to copy, what shape does the economy take? What drives it?
And here’s an “economic technology” future: widespread universal basic income. As AI and automation reduce job availability for all, how do people even find work to get money to buy things? Maybe they don’t. Maybe the government taps the wealth of whatever economic driver is dominant and just redistributes large parts of it to the people.
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