Will Automation Cause Runaway Inequality? (with Phil Trammell)

March 3
1h 23m

Episode Description

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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