I was just listening to a @Nate B Jones’ youtube about the emergent agentic economy, and he said: “An agent that has a wallet, search capabilities, content access, payment rails, and an execution environment is more than an assistant. It is an economic actor.”
I immediately flashed back to one of your post-labor economics posts about this exact concept, a near-term future where our agents would run around earning for us.
Iirc, that was ~two years ago. Now it’s happening and big behemoth web and payment infrastructure is reshaping to facilitate it. You called it. And I think you take some shit for calling this stuff early, so popping by to say, you told us so.
Thank you David - I am eager to read your new book and I'm on the wait-list on Kick Starter. I don’t think any of us know what is really "next", but we are rapidly approaching a Post-labor Economy world. I appreciate your thoughts.
From my world view (Christian Marketplace Pastor), we are not factoring in the God element. He still remains sovereign in my worldview. Biblically, we were created to ‘work, worship and serve’ - when you eliminate ‘work’, you are destroying a core element of who we really are - Imago Dei, that is, we are created in the Image of God, a God who worked when he created (literally the 1st line in the Bible).
From my perspective and that of the Church, we are going to have to deal with a large group of people who were formed by the marketplace, not their faith. Sure, you can attend church every week for an hour, but the Church as never really addressed (from the pulpit) the real spiritual formation of its members, first and foremost, we are image bearers of God himself, and second, God is the provider. It's critical to realize there is no divide between the sacred and the secular. So not only does this Post-Labor world disrupt everything we know, it also destroys our market formed identity and the provision thereof, based on a title and job. This is a great opportunity for the church to help humans see their true identity and who is the real provider of all things. It's also important to recognize that post-labor, doesn't mean post work - that identity as Imago Dei does not go away. While "labor" may change, we will still work, it will just look different - more creative, more entrepreneurial. The transactional economics change.
I will soon start to publish my own ideas around these concepts. They are not mutually exclusive from yours. We are all wrestling with the same fate.
You are of course allowed to foreground a particular ontological set of beliefs i.e. "we were built by God to work" but you must also remember that not everyone shares that ontology. Even within Christianity, not everyone interprets the bible that way. With that being said, spirituality WILL likely be an important source of grounding for people as they pivot away from "labor as identity" and I do think that many religious people in particular have an advantage here, as their identity might be "child of God" first (though I would argue that many religious people have not really worked this into their identity.)
Hi David, love your work. You lose me at the end of this one. In section 7, you say The People offer: 1 Production (labor), but explain that's going away, giving the State greater leverage. Why doesn't the State also lose in this new world, also in section 7, The State offers: 2 Enablement of prosperity (trade, commerce, innovation). Isn't that necessarily tied to the People's consumption? If Production (labor) decreases, consumption also decreases. If we all only consumed what we needed I could see humans having no leverage here, but the reality is most of our economy has been running off dependency on wastefulness and buying what you dont need for decades. New cars, extra vacations, 1/3 of food is wasted. If the People are freed of labor, they'll wake up to Madison Ave PsyOps. The younger generation already is. Give teens 3 pairs of sweatpants, one sweatshirt, and Internet access and they're good for years.
Have you ever considered the idea that every human becomes an independent nation? Rather than top down being preserved, what if center-out is born?
I was just listening to a @Nate B Jones’ youtube about the emergent agentic economy, and he said: “An agent that has a wallet, search capabilities, content access, payment rails, and an execution environment is more than an assistant. It is an economic actor.”
I immediately flashed back to one of your post-labor economics posts about this exact concept, a near-term future where our agents would run around earning for us.
Iirc, that was ~two years ago. Now it’s happening and big behemoth web and payment infrastructure is reshaping to facilitate it. You called it. And I think you take some shit for calling this stuff early, so popping by to say, you told us so.
The capital broadening idea? Solid conversation starter.
The “all labor gone” certainty? That’s the stretch.
Time will tell.
Anyways, I didn't claim all labor gone, if you actually read the article.
I have a whole series of articles on this subject, this is the first one: https://filipblagojevic.substack.com/p/jobs-of-the-future-what-survives I promise it's worth your time
I'm in. Hurry Sundown!
Thank you David - I am eager to read your new book and I'm on the wait-list on Kick Starter. I don’t think any of us know what is really "next", but we are rapidly approaching a Post-labor Economy world. I appreciate your thoughts.
From my world view (Christian Marketplace Pastor), we are not factoring in the God element. He still remains sovereign in my worldview. Biblically, we were created to ‘work, worship and serve’ - when you eliminate ‘work’, you are destroying a core element of who we really are - Imago Dei, that is, we are created in the Image of God, a God who worked when he created (literally the 1st line in the Bible).
From my perspective and that of the Church, we are going to have to deal with a large group of people who were formed by the marketplace, not their faith. Sure, you can attend church every week for an hour, but the Church as never really addressed (from the pulpit) the real spiritual formation of its members, first and foremost, we are image bearers of God himself, and second, God is the provider. It's critical to realize there is no divide between the sacred and the secular. So not only does this Post-Labor world disrupt everything we know, it also destroys our market formed identity and the provision thereof, based on a title and job. This is a great opportunity for the church to help humans see their true identity and who is the real provider of all things. It's also important to recognize that post-labor, doesn't mean post work - that identity as Imago Dei does not go away. While "labor" may change, we will still work, it will just look different - more creative, more entrepreneurial. The transactional economics change.
I will soon start to publish my own ideas around these concepts. They are not mutually exclusive from yours. We are all wrestling with the same fate.
You are of course allowed to foreground a particular ontological set of beliefs i.e. "we were built by God to work" but you must also remember that not everyone shares that ontology. Even within Christianity, not everyone interprets the bible that way. With that being said, spirituality WILL likely be an important source of grounding for people as they pivot away from "labor as identity" and I do think that many religious people in particular have an advantage here, as their identity might be "child of God" first (though I would argue that many religious people have not really worked this into their identity.)
Hi David, love your work. You lose me at the end of this one. In section 7, you say The People offer: 1 Production (labor), but explain that's going away, giving the State greater leverage. Why doesn't the State also lose in this new world, also in section 7, The State offers: 2 Enablement of prosperity (trade, commerce, innovation). Isn't that necessarily tied to the People's consumption? If Production (labor) decreases, consumption also decreases. If we all only consumed what we needed I could see humans having no leverage here, but the reality is most of our economy has been running off dependency on wastefulness and buying what you dont need for decades. New cars, extra vacations, 1/3 of food is wasted. If the People are freed of labor, they'll wake up to Madison Ave PsyOps. The younger generation already is. Give teens 3 pairs of sweatpants, one sweatshirt, and Internet access and they're good for years.
Have you ever considered the idea that every human becomes an independent nation? Rather than top down being preserved, what if center-out is born?
Excellent summary of the framework