More than 40 years ago when I was reading some books on economics, I came across the following sentence (paraphrased as I do not recall the author): “a robot will not buy anything.” This was in the 1980’s when technology was beginning to make strides in society. Naysayers and negative predictions about technology were silenced by quoting Joseph Schumpeter’s idea that capitalism and new ideas will replace the old, and therefore new technologies will replace old technologies which will continuously improve prosperity. However, that one statement, “a robot will not buy anything,” stuck with me as it struck at the core of economic theory where consumption is key.
Over the years, we have seen technology take over our lives, but the inevitable disruption appeared to be manageable. However, as increased technological change starts displacing more jobs, it behoves us to revisit that statement and the necessary economic and political changes that may need to be considered. Technological improvements are a good thing but their consequences need to be carefully considered and managed. The following is a simple, but by no means simplistic examination of the saying, “a robot will not buy anything.”.
So, “a robot would not buy anything”: In the short term, robots will continue to keep producing things for the consumer market. Production efficiencies will be realized and profits will increase. But, consumers will need work to derive income that will allow them to continue to be consumers. When they are no longer able to consume, the particular market for that product will shrink and new markets need to be discovered to maintain consumption and profits. Wealth will be concentrated in the hands of the robot owners, who will use their wealth to improve their lot by lobbying legislation to promote their cause for labor regulations and access to markets. Over the long term however, as technology impacts other markets, the consumer market as a whole will shrink. Let’s take this scenario to its logical conclusion. Rapid unmanaged technological change will cause massive disruptions in jobs and markets. As robots increase and human producers and human consumers decrease, the economy as we currently know it must necessarily evolve or implode.
We need to seriously look at managing the disruptions that technology is causing and going to cause. People whose jobs are being displaced by technology will need alternative forms of income, not only to survive, but to continue to be part of the economic consumption formula. So, terms like Universal Health Care, and, Universal Basic Income are not socialist ideas, but universal ones that are very timely and much needed for the survival of American society as we currently know it.
Our politicians are not going to help us as long as we keeping sending self serving and unthinking people to congress who can be readily influenced and/or bought by lobbyists. On the subject of technology, you only need to have listened to the questions posed to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg when he appeared before congress, to understand how clueless some of our legislators are about technology. They are not going to appreciate the import of the massive disruptions technology will cause us. We need our representatives in government to be honest and ethical, knowledgeable, continuous learners open to new ideas and learning, and committed first and foremost to the betterment of human capital in an economic society.
Since my retirement, my interest in the sentence “a robot will not buy anything” in the context of our current economy, has reoccupied my thinking. I hope to spend some time learning about and sharing some of the problems, ideas and possible solutions that surround this issue. One book on the issue that I am currently reading, that may be promising, is Andrew Yang’s “The War on Normal People.”
Educhirp 
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