ForeCast

Will Automation Cause Runaway Inequality? (with Phil Trammell)

ForeCast

Show Notes

Phil Trammell is an economics postdoc at Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab, working on questions related to economic growth and AI. He discusses:

Why Piketty's thesis about runaway inequality was likely wrong about the past but right about the future

How full automation turns capital and labour into gross substitutes

Why catch-up growth between rich and poor countries could end

How the privatisation of returns is already concentrating wealth

Why family dynasties and inheritance become far more important in a post-automation economy

Whether autocratic regimes can outgrow democracies after AGI

How to measure whether capital is becoming truly self-replicating — and what the data currently shows

Watch the video version on YouTube.

Read a full transcript here.

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