Post-Labor Economics Lecture 03 - "That which gets measured gets managed!" (2025 update)
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As automation displaces wage labor, economies must shift from measuring and optimizing for traditional labor metrics (unemployment, wages) to measuring and building broad-based property ownership as the primary source of household income, using a new Economic Agency Index (EAI) to guide policy at county, state, and federal levels.
- Existing KPIs (GDP, unemployment, wages) fail to capture resilience in a post-labor economy where 20-50% of current jobs disappear and property income must replace wage income
- The Economic Agency Index measures the mix of property income, wages, and transfers at county level, enabling decentralized experimentation with ownership-based solutions before national rollout
- Property-based income (dividends, rents, capital gains, trusts) scales with automation while wages collapse, and broader distributed ownership prevents techno-feudalism better than centralized UBI
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That which gets measured gets managed—the choice of economic KPIs fundamentally shapes policy priorities and economic outcomes, making measurement philosophy the foundation of post-labor economics.
“the entire philosophy behind this is that which gets measured gets managed”
The biggest problem with technological deflation is that even if technology can make goods and services cheaper (deflationary power), if nobody has purchasing power, it doesn't matter because people can't buy the cheaper goods and services.
“the biggest problem that people are talking about is okay even if technology can make goods and services cheaper so you have some deflationary uh power if nobody has purchasing power it doesn't really matter”
County-level economic microclimates surface distinct conditions that state and national averages blur into statistical noise, requiring granular geographic measurement to detect problems and opportunities.
“Granularity. County slices uh surface economic microclimates that state or national averages blur into noise.”
GDP originated in the 1930s and has become the primary aggregate measure of economic wealth, but it measures transactions in a consumption-based economy where all consumption is considered equal, masking the actual sources of purchasing power.
“For GDP, that's kind of the the big the big knob that everyone is trying to optimize right now. It originated in the 1930s. um and uh became kind of the first kind of like aggregate okay wealth of nations what are we actually optimizing for um and one of the things is that you're you're actually measuring uh transactions so it's a consumption-based economy so the theory is that the more consumption that you have the better the economy is doing and you just kind of throw it all into one bucket uh all consumption is basically considered equal”
Economic subsidiarity—the principle that decisions should be made at the lowest possible level of government—should guide post-labor policy because counties, banks, local companies, and states can craft richer property income streams when they hold the tools and incentives themselves.
“the principle of economic subsidiarity. Counties, banks, local companies, and states can craft richer property income streams when they hold the tools and incentives themselves. Basically, we don't want a centrally managed economy. Plain and simple.”
Property-based income (dividends, rents, interest, capital gains, and trusts) is fundamentally different from government transfers because property income is market-driven and scales with productivity, while transfers are tax-funded and create dependency on government bureaucracy.
“Anything that is paid as in the form of dividends, rents, interest, trusts, those sort of things is a property share. even if the government is helped managing it, if it's not paid for directly by taxes, then it's property or wage.”
Real wages have shrunk significantly since 1971 (when the US left the gold standard) and accelerated downward in the 1980s-90s when automation began, because productivity has grown faster than wage growth—a gap that will only accelerate with AI and robotics.
“real wages have actually shrunk pretty significantly since about 1971 which is when we went off the gold standard. Uh and then it accelerated in the 80s and 90s when automation started uh coming in. And also when you look at the data you see that uh that productivity has gone up uh faster than wages has gone up”
Centralized government payouts hide granular price cues needed for decentralized economic decision-making, blinding the economy to nearby value opportunities that would be visible if households had to choose among property investments with different returns.
“information loss. centralized payouts hide granular price cues, blinding the economy's decentralized social brain to nearby value opportunities. Basically, if your if your financial health is completely independent from the local health of the economy around you, um then you're just going to spend whatever you're going to spend. Whereas, if you have options, if you have more if you have a menu of options or other places that you can invest, guess what? If you have dividend seeking behavior, you're going to find the best places that pay the best dividends, which maintains market information.”
Wider private property ownership prevents techno-feudalism and concentrates risk because if wealthy actors monopolize all assets, they eventually erode their own revenue streams by bankrupting customers—aggregate demand collapse harms even asset holders.
“Elite capture if wealthy actors monopolize assets they eventually erode their own revenue streams by bankrupting customers. Again if households don't have money they don't spend money and the economy grinds to a halt. So that alone uh aligns the incentive.”
With automation advancing, labor-based KPIs like unemployment and wage metrics will become less reliable indicators of economic health because wages will decline as a share of aggregate demand, requiring entirely new measurement frameworks focused on property-based income.
“Now, of course, with automation coming, uh labor and wages are going to start going down. So, they're going to become a less reliable, uh marker of what's going on out there. GDP is not going anywhere. But at the same time, uh we need a way to capture uh something that that says like, okay, even if wages go away forever, we need an entirely new set of KPIs other than payroll numbers, uh unemployment, and those sorts of things.”
Job guarantee programs fail to address post-labor displacement because: (1) workers experience forced placements as downward mobility and resist them; (2) displaced workers often lack skills to transfer laterally; (3) creating artificial jobs drains resources from productive investments and reduces GDP per hour.
“shovel ready programs uh prove that force placements feel like downward mobility and meet limited skills transfer. Basically, people, if you lose your job as a developer or an electrician or something, you don't want to go dig ditches. It feels dehumanizing.”
Real wages have shrunk significantly since 1971 (when the US left the gold standard) and especially since the 1980s-1990s when automation accelerated; while nominal wages have grown, real purchasing power has declined because productivity growth has outpaced wage growth.
“real wages have actually shrunk pretty significantly since about 1971 which is when we went off the gold standard. Uh and then it accelerated in the 80s and 90s when automation started uh coming in.”
Fiscal drag: ever-growing government transfers force higher taxes or debt, draining capital that would otherwise be invested in productive, yield-bearing assets, making transfer-based systems economically inefficient compared to property-based income.
“fiscal drag, ever growing transfers forces higher taxes or debt, draining capital that would be invested in productive yield-bearing assets. So the idea is that if you just rely on tax and spend, then it's not necessarily the most uh efficient allocation of resources for investment and reinvestment.”
Giant federal trusts like Social Security and Medicare demonstrate central authority tyranny risk: they morph into political battlegrounds and rent-seeking magnets, and users can be arbitrarily cut off or administratively declared dead with years-long recovery periods and no back pay.
“Number one, central authority tyranny. Social security and Medicare show how giant federal trusts morph into political battleground battlegrounds and magnets for rent seeking. Um, yeah. Whenever whenever someone says, "Let's just go all in on UBI," it's like they haven't paid attention to history and the fact that the more money that the government owns and manages, the uh the more at risk you are. So, there's horror stories of people um getting cut off from their social security checks or Medicare checks, those sorts of things. The government might say, "Oh, well, someone filed the wrong uh uh social security number, so you're now officially dead." and it takes them years to get back on to those programs and they usually don't get back pay.”
GDP originated in the 1930s and measures transactions in a consumption-based economy, treating all consumption as equal, but this metric hides whether spending power comes from wages, transfers, or assets, becoming increasingly unreliable as automation rises.
“For GDP, that's kind of the the big the big knob that everyone is trying to optimize right now. It originated in the 1930s. um and uh became kind of the first kind of like aggregate okay wealth of nations what are we actually optimizing for um and one of the things is that you're you're actually measuring uh transactions so it's a consumption-based economy so the theory is that the more consumption that you have the better the economy is doing”
Globalism became unpopular because while offshoring to China made goods cheaper, the jobs moved to China as well, and labor arbitrage meant workers did not see increased purchasing power despite deflation, a pattern repeating with automation.
“Um this is one of the reasons that globalism has been so unpopular is because it's like yes we have made things we've made goods and services cheaper by offshoring our manufacturing to China. Um but now all those jobs are in China and so with labor arbitrage you guys still don't have that much more money. Um and then with automation on the rise guess what we have the machines generating as much of the wealth as possible. So again, you workers are kind of up the creek without a paddle.”
There are approximately 3,100 counties or county-equivalent jurisdictions in America, each with unique geographic and economic advantages, creating 3,100 natural policy laboratories where post-labor interventions can be tested and scaled.
“There are about three 3,100 counties or county equivalent polies or or uh domains in America, which means that you have 3,000 different economic labs where you can try out some of these different things.”
Technology has never created net new jobs; it lowers costs and frees capital, but economics contains no mechanism guaranteeing that newly-enabled demand will rely on human labor rather than machines.
“Technology lowers costs and frees capital for fresh demand, but nothing in economics guarantees those new needs rely on human labor. As automation scales, employment metrics shed their power to gauge prosperity.”
Anticipating that 20-50% of work that exists today will still be around after AI and automation, because for the remaining jobs, there is no inherent reason why they must be done by humans rather than machines—it's an anthropocentric fallacy to assume new jobs will be staffed by humans.
“I and others anticipate that anywhere from 20 to 50% of work that exists today will still be around even after AI and automation. Of course, some people assume that that AI will ultimately create new jobs. many of us don't believe so because this this time is truly different in that um there's no ne there's not necessarily any reason for any of the new jobs to be done by humans”
Labor KPIs (unemployment rate, wage metrics) assume jobs and payroll are reliable barometers of economic health, but with automation, wages will shrink and become less reliable markers of actual economic conditions, necessitating entirely new KPIs beyond employment and payroll metrics.
“Now, of course, with automation coming, uh labor and wages are going to start going down. So, they're going to become a less reliable, uh marker of what's going on out there.”
Which gets measured gets managed: metrics are not neutral observation tools—they shape behavior, incentives, and policy; therefore, choosing the right KPI is critical for steering an economy toward desired outcomes.
“the entire philosophy behind this is that which gets measured gets managed. All right, so let's get right into it.”
Black Rock and other asset accumulators will not voluntarily distribute property, but EAI measurement gives policymakers grounds to redistribute: when data shows concentration rising, it creates political justification to reclaim control through regulatory intervention.
“Now at the same time, do you think that Black Rockck is going to say, "Oh, well, you know, yes, let's just give away some of our property." No, they're not going to do it. But what this does is it gives people something to measure to say, "Hey, we're going to rest back some of that control."”
Technology has never created new jobs in the aggregate sense that matters—technological innovation lowers costs and frees capital, but nothing in economics guarantees that new demand will rely on human labor versus machines.
“Technology lowers costs and frees capital for fresh demand, but nothing in economics guarantees those new needs rely on human labor. As automation scales, employment metrics shed their power to gauge prosperity.”
Elite capture—wealthy actors monopolizing assets—eventually erodes their own revenue streams by bankrupting customers; this self-limiting mechanism means market health naturally depends on distributed agency rather than requiring enforcement.
“if wealthy actors monopolize assets they eventually erode their own revenue streams by bankrupting customers. Again if households don't have money they don't spend money and the economy grinds to a halt. So that alone uh aligns the incentive.”
Marxist frameworks calling for abolition of money, class, and state are unworkable because classlessness is attractive but legal equality already achieves it, and abolishing money removes the price signal mechanism needed for decentralized coordination.
“Marxist abolition abolitions uh Markx called for scrapping money class and the state only classlessness is attractive and legal equality already delivers that.”
Inventing make-work or busy-work tasks to sustain employment is economically inefficient because humans are less productive than machines at routine tasks, diverting resources from productive investments and dragging down GDP per hour.
“inventing tasks for the sake of wages diverts resources from productive investments and drags GDP per hour downward. Basically, if you say, 'Well, the machine could do this job, but we're just going to pay humans to do it anyways,' the humans are less efficient. Um, and so that's actually economically inefficient, and you don't want to do that.”
The optimal number of employees for any company approaches zero as cost-cutting becomes the dominant competitive pressure; with AI tools like OpenAI Codex eliminating the need to hire specialized workers, companies will move toward full automation.
“Profit imperative. Competitive pricing makes labor the first cost center to trim. So the asmtote of efficiency is near zero employees. Long long story short, in the long run, the the optimal number of employees is simply zero. That's it. That's where that's the end state that we're going towards is that every company will get to as close to zero employees as they possibly can.”
Property-based income (dividends, rents, interest, capital gains, trusts) is superior to UBI or government transfers because it maintains market incentives, prevents central authority tyranny seen in Social Security and Medicare, and keeps decision-making decentralized rather than subject to political capture and rent-seeking.
“economic agency comes down to ownership and ownership beats transfers for a number of reasons. Governance-heavy cash programs dull market signals and invite capture whereas broad private ownerships keeps incentives sharp and decent decision-making local.”
Collective bargaining power has been the primary reason society works historically; neoliberalism destroyed unions to prevent labor withholding, but automation removes labor's bargaining power entirely regardless of unions—the new bargaining chip is collective property ownership and purchasing power.
“the primary reason that society works today or at least has up until this point was because of collective bargaining power. Meaning that we the people could withhold our labor. Well, once neoliberalism came in, it said, you know what, you're actually not allowed to withhold your labor. That's why they uh destroyed unions and those sorts of things. And with automation, it's like withhold your labor all you want. We're going to send your job overseas or give it to a machine. Um so we have been losing labor bargaining power for the better part of a century now. Now society must choose between uh endless transfers or genuine private property inclusion. So the ability to withhold property um and collective purchasing power of property becomes the next bargaining chip that keeps society fair.”
Inflation indexes track price stability but reveal nothing about households' ability to maintain purchasing power as wages shrink, creating a gap where inflation metrics show stability while real purchasing power deteriorates.
“Inflation indexes these track price stability but also say nothing about households ability to keep buying as wages shrink. This is one of the biggest problems is that uh is that household income so wages have not kept pace with the real cost of things.”
The age of automation began in the 1980s-90s and has only accelerated over the last two decades, and will only continue to accelerate with AI and robotics over the next decade or two.
“the age of automation began in the 80s and 90s and has only picked up over the last two decades and will only continue to accelerate with AI and robotics over the next decade or two”
Data centers and humanoid robots do not take up significant physical space, so robots and data centers can be deployed and scaled in every county, enabling property-based income streams to scale effectively across rural and urban regions.
“data centers don't actually take up that much space. Um, and and neither do humanoid robots, by the way. Um, so you can put robots and data centers in every county as far as I'm concerned. Um, which will scale.”
Residual wages, attention economy jobs, and meaning economy jobs will persist but will never scale to replace the service sector labor they would displace, creating a structural income floor but not a demand solution.
“residual wages, attention economy, and meaning economy persist, but uh its scale may never rival the service sector that it replaces. Basically, we do suspect that there's always going to be some level of wages uh you know from from various uh uh sides of the economy. But as you know the agricultural curve has kind of bottomed out in terms of share of wages as the manufacturing economy has bottomed out so too do we think that the service-based economy is going to bottom out. But then the question remains is will the attention economy and the meaning economy uh actually grow to replace that? And right now I don't think the answer is yes.”
Consumer confidence measures sentiment but offers limited guidance when optimism diverges from actual real income streams—what matters is whether households have genuine purchasing power, not whether they feel optimistic.
“Consumer confidence reads sentiment but offers li limited guidance when optimism diverges from real income streams. So this is one of the things that is also tracked where you're just saying like how how confident are voters in the economy and that they'll be able to make ends meet.”
The 'big crayon' problem: GDP and unemployment are aggregate metrics that hide crucial details and variation—they are blunt instruments that mask county-level economic diversity and microclimate differences.
“any kind of KPI usually hides uh a lot more details. GDP is a big crayon kind of number. Unemployment is a big crayon kind of number.”
Shorter work weeks won't solve automation displacement because firms absorb reduced hours by laying off workers and requiring survivors to increase workload, not by spreading work; studies show 4-day weeks improve health and productivity but companies avoid adopting them due to skepticism and slow change.
“Splitting one one role among five workers piles on HR tax and insurance overhead that firms simply won't absorb. Um and firms have never done this. Uh what what they do instead is they lay off half of your team and then the rest of the team picks up the slack. That's just how companies work.”
Relying solely on tax-and-spend transfers creates fiscal drag by increasing tax burdens and debt, which crowds out capital that would otherwise be invested in productive, yield-bearing assets.
“fiscal drag, ever growing transfers forces higher taxes or debt, draining capital that would be invested in productive yield bearing assets. So the idea is that if you just rely on tax and spend, then it's not necessarily the most uh efficient allocation of resources for investment and reinvestment. Plain and simple.”
One of the primary problems with neoliberalism is that household income does not scale with GDP, meaning economic growth benefits do not reach workers, so broader property ownership is necessary to ensure prosperity increases reach all citizens.
“That's one of the primary problems that has not been solved with neoliberalism is that household income does not scale with GDP. Not not in lock step, not under an automated economy.”
Real communism is not possible in practice because benevolent central planners inevitably become authoritarian, turning the economy into an efficient command grid that lacks human freedom and market responsiveness.
“Communism. In reality, in practice, benevolent central planners become authoritarian, turning the economy into an efficient command grid. Now, before someone says, 'But real communism has never been tried.' That is exactly the point. Real communism is not possible. um it's not going to happen.”
Post-labor economics preserves prices and decentralized decision-making, whereas Marxism, communism, and socialism are fundamentally different flavors of central planning that suffocate both price signals and distributed agency.
“PL preserves prices and decentralized decision-making. Central planning suffocates both. All of these, Marxism, communism, and socialism are all fundamentally different flavors of central planning.”
The anthropocentric fallacy assumes new economic demand must be staffed by humans, but there is no natural law or economic law requiring this; economic physics is agnostic to species and no physical law requires houses to be built by humans.
“the anthropocentric fallacy. No natural law says that emerging markets must be staffed by humans. Economic physics is agnostic to species. Uh basically there's no reason that new new uh jobs or new work must be done by humans. It's always like it can always be done by machines.”
UBI-only solutions are delusional because they ignore how government programs inevitably become political battlegrounds subject to capture, rent-seeking, and arbitrary benefit cuts—relying entirely on government for livelihood is structurally fragile regardless of AI implementation.
“anyone who says just UBI is the solution, I'm just going to say it, they're delusional. Like they're they're they're just completely delusional and do not know how states work.”
Job guarantee programs fail because displaced workers refuse lateral skill transfers (miners don't want car factory jobs) and forced placements feel dehumanizing, creating downward mobility perception that discourages uptake regardless of wage levels offered.
“shovel ready programs uh prove that force placements feel like downward mobility and meet limited skills transfer. Basically, people, if you lose your job as a developer or an electrician or something, you don't want to go dig ditches. It feels dehumanizing. Nobody's going to do that.”
The Economic Agency Index (EAI) measures household buying power from ownership returns versus wages and transfers, comprised of three components: property income (dividends, rents, interest, capital gains) weighted most heavily, wages weighted lower with beta to account for volatility, and transfers weighted negatively or minimally, then rescaled 0-100.
“The EI uh gauges how much household spending power is rooted in ownership returns versus wages or transfers. Um, so it's there's three comp three primary components that goes into the economic agency index”
Blanket UBI creates market distortions by severing the link between local productivity and local purchasing power, allowing communities to spend guaranteed income without local returns or investment, thereby perpetuating regional economic decline.
“The blanket UBI can paper over and perpetuate local mismatches between what communities produce and what they consume. So while you do want some UBI, you want you want to create a floor uh of of economic prosperity which will also prime the pump”
Even when new job categories emerge, AI and robotics rapidly displace labor before employment rebounds, creating a temporary 'camel's hump' of jobs before automation completes; only roles in AI/robot deployment temporarily expand before those jobs too are automated.
“Even when fresh rolls appear, AI and robotics rush in displacing labor before headcount rebounds. So, this is actually seems to be where the consensus out in my audience is is that we're probably going to see a camel's hump of jobs where uh the until until the point where AI and robotics are good enough to replace everything, they probably will create a few more jobs uh in some respects, but that's basically just going to be the people deploying the AI and robots.”
Residual wages in 'attention economy' and 'meaning economy' jobs may persist but will never scale to replace the service sector employment they'll displace, leaving a permanent employment gap.
“residual wages, attention economy, and meaning economy persist, but uh its scale may never rival the service sector that it replaces. Basically, we do suspect that there's always going to be some level of wages uh you know from from various uh uh sides of the economy. But as you know the agricultural curve has kind of bottomed out in terms of share of wages as the manufacturing economy has bottomed out so too do we think that the service-based economy is going to bottom out. But then the question remains is will the attention economy and the meaning economy uh actually grow to replace that? And right now I don't think the answer is yes.”
The asymptote of labor efficiency is near zero employees—the end state that all companies move toward is as close to zero employees as possible, because competitive pricing makes labor the first cost center to trim and machines eventually displace all labor.
“Competitive pricing makes labor the first cost center to trim. So the asmtoe of efficiency is near zero employees. Long long story short, in the long run, the the optimal number of employees is simply zero. That's it. That's where that's the end state that we're going towards is that every company will get to as close to zero employees as they possibly can.”
The Economic Agency Index (EAI) measures household buying power rooted in ownership income (property, dividends, rents, interest, capital gains) rather than wages alone, composed of three weighted components: property-based returns, wage income, and government transfers.
“what we're proposing and what I've mentioned uh in other videos about post labor economics is the EAI. So that is the uh economic agency index and this uh tracks household buying power in ownership not just wages. It's actually broken down into three components.”
An ideal KPI must be both descriptive (accurately diagnose problems) and prescriptive (indicate what action should be taken), which current metrics like employment and inflation fail to provide.
“what you're looking for, an ideal KPI is something that is both, uh descriptive and prescriptives. So descriptive means that it is accurately able to diagnose a problem and prescriptive means that it can uh indicate what you're supposed to do with that information.”
Inflation indexes track price stability but offer no information about households' ability to maintain purchasing power as wages shrink relative to the real cost of goods and services.
“Inflation indexes these track price stability but also say nothing about households ability to keep buying as wages shrink. This is one of the biggest problems is that uh is that household income so wages have not kept pace with the real cost of things.”
The Economic Agency Index can be calculated in real-time at county, state, and federal levels, creating a live dashboard where policymakers can visualize which counties are succeeding (high property-based income) and which are struggling (high reliance on transfers), enabling targeted interventions.
“With EA with EI calculated for every US county, uh each becomes a live sandbox where policy tweaks echo in the data within a year. This ground level clarity lets America prototype post-labor ownership models locally before rolling them up to state and federal levels.”
Society has been losing labor bargaining power for nearly a century due to neoliberal destruction of unions and offshoring of jobs; collective property ownership and purchasing power must become the new bargaining mechanism to replace vanishing labor power.
“the primary reason that society works today or at least has up until this point was because of collective bargaining power. Meaning that we the people could withhold our labor. Well, once neoliberalism came in, it said, you know what, you're actually not allowed to withhold your labor. That's why they uh destroyed unions and those sorts of things. And with automation, it's like withhold your labor all you want. We're going to send your job overseas or give it to a machine. Um so we have been losing labor bargaining power for the better part of a century now.”
Crypto and blockchain can help facilitate distributed ownership models, but they are not prerequisites—democratic policy reforms are the primary prerequisites for diffusing ownership broadly.
“Crypto and blockchain can help but dem uh democratic and uh policy reforms are the pure uh sorry not pure true prerequisites for diffusing ownership. So some people and here's the logic behind it is that uh Silicon Valley and effective altruists and all those other people they see the government as fundamentally too slow and too broken to do anything which is why Sam Alman and Worldcoin are like we are going to single-handedly save you know solve UBI and and and know your customer and all that fun stuff. And it's like great yes technological innovation definitely helps these things but at the same time they're being told no by a bunch of governments.”
Universal Basic Income (UBI) as the sole solution to post-labor economics is 'delusional' because government-managed cash programs create political vulnerability: benefits can be arbitrarily cut off, recipients can be wrongly marked as deceased in bureaucratic errors, and political parties may weaponize benefits through denial or reduction.
“whoever says just UBI is the solution, I'm just going to say it, they're delusional. Like they're they're they're just completely delusional and do not know how states work.”
Every county should monetize its unfair geographic advantages: coastal counties have water-based advantages for tourism and fisheries; desert/meadow counties have sunlight for solar; forested counties can leverage timber; this geographic diversification prevents over-reliance on any single industry.
“every county should use their unfair advantage. So for instance, if you have a county that is on the coast or on the river or on a lake, they have natural sources of water. So that's an unfair geographic advantage that they have for tourism, fisheries, estuaries, those sorts of things. If you have a county that has a lot of meadows or desert, guess what? Their unfair advantage is is uh sunlight. If you have one that's got a lot of trees, their fair advantage is forest.”
Marxist abolition of money and class is appealing in theory but impossible in practice; communism requires non-existent 'benevolent central planners,' and all attempts have become authoritarian command economies.
“Marxist abolition abolitions uh Markx called for scrapping money class and the state only classlessness is attractive and legal equality already delivers that.”
When new roles appear due to technological change, AI and robotics rush in displacing labor before headcount rebounds—there's a 'camel's hump' of temporary job growth before automation renders those jobs obsolete, meaning the jobs aren't actually solved.
“even when fresh rolls appear, AI and robotics rush in displacing labor before headcount rebounds. So, this is actually seems to be where the consensus out in my audience is is that we're probably going to see a camel's hump of jobs where uh the until until the point where AI and robotics are good enough to replace everything, they probably will create a few more jobs uh in some respects, but that's basically just going to be the people deploying the AI and robots.”
Government transfers (social security, unemployment, SNAP, UBI, Medicare, Medicaid) should be weighted negatively or neutrally in EAI because they create moral hazard, invite political capture, and discourage the property-seeking behavior needed for market-signal-based resilience.
“transfers. So transfers are government benefits...Anything that is paid for by taxes directly is a government transfer...the formula...property plus beta times wages minus transfers”
Detroit exemplifies the risk: with sufficient UBI, residents spend without local productivity, but property-based income aligns incentives by rewarding those who improve local asset value (renovate housing, attract business, build solar farms).
“say for instance you have uh you know Detroit just as an example and everyone ends up with you know $2,400 a month of UBI or even more...Detroit is not particularly productive at least not compared to where it used to be because there aren't as many jobs around. Um and if there aren't as many jobs around that's one way of looking at it but there's also not as many valuable properties. So what you want to do is you actually want to incentivize people to get as much of their monthly income from property as possible because then that is actually finding efficiencies whether it's local or national or international doesn't matter but you're finding efficiencies”
Banks can unlock new loan products and credit instruments when underwritten against stable property-income flows rather than volatile wages, enabling financial innovation that supports property ownership scaling.
“Banks. Stable dividend and rent flows reduce credit risk and enable new loan products underwritten on an on asset income. So the idea here basically is that once we start pivoting from a wage-based income uh aggregate demand to a property based aggregate demand, then your local bank will be able to actually say, "Hey, there's new products that we can offer based on this."”
Counties can turn land, infrastructure, or intellectual property into resident dividends, which grows the tax base and attracts talent without raising tax rates, creating a virtuous cycle where property ownership becomes self-sustaining.
“Counties. Turning land, infrastructure or intellectual property into resident dividend grows the tax base and attracts talent without raising rates.”
Each county should use its 'unfair advantage'—geographic or resource-based competitive advantage: coastal/river counties have tourism and fisheries; meadow/desert counties have solar potential; forest counties have timber—these can be monetized into property income streams without scaling limits.
“one of the rules of thumb that we're coming up with for this is every county should use their unfair advantage. So for instance, if you have a county that is on the coast or on the river or on a lake, they have natural sources of water. So that's an unfair geographic advantage that they have for tourism, fisheries, estuaries, those sorts of things. If you have a county that has a lot of meadows or desert, guess what? Their unfair advantage is is uh sunlight. If you have one that's got a lot of trees, their fair advantage is forest.”
The EAI enables county-level experimentation: with ~3,100 US counties, each becomes a live sandbox where policy tweaks can be measured in real-time data within a year, allowing America to prototype post-labor ownership models locally before scaling to state and federal levels.
“With EA with EI calculated for every US county, uh each becomes a live sandbox where policy tweaks echo in the data within a year. This ground level clarity lets America prototype post-labor ownership models locally before rolling them up to state and federal levels.”
Distributing ownership at the county level thwarts technofeudalim by rooting economic power in democratic communities rather than concentrating it in corporate entities, preserving community voice in local economic governance.
“Finally, we're hedging technofudalism. Distributing ownership at the county level thwarts technofudal concentration by rooting power in democratic communities.”
Blanket UBI can paper over and perpetuate local economic mismatches between what communities produce and what they consume, creating market distortions where guaranteed income divorces spending from local productivity and investment returns.
“The blanket UBI can paper over and perpetuate local mismatches between what communities produce and what they consume. So while you do want some UBI, you want you want to create a floor uh of of economic prosperity which will also prime the pump because guess where UBI is going to come from? It's going to come from the tech giants that are selling robots and data centers and AI and those sorts of things. However, if you have a mismatch where basically everyone has guaranteed amount of money that they can spend no matter what, you're going to create what's called a market distortion.”
Local authorities (cities, counties), local businesses (mom-and-pop shops, credit unions), and regional institutions can iterate on property income streams tailored to their unique assets and culture, generating local knowledge that larger national or international institutions lack.
“Subsidiary, we kind of already talked about that. Uh but to put it in context here, local authorities, so that's cities and counties. Local businesses, I'm not talking about the, you know, the big Wall Street firms. I'm talking about your mom and pop shops and local banks. So, I'm not talking about national banks or international banks. I'm talking about your local credit union can iterate on property income streams tailored to their unique assets and culture. The more information you have about what works in your region, the better.”
Broad purchasing power sustains profitability across the economy, giving all firms an incentive to share ownership through mechanisms like trusts or banks owning 5-20% of every profitable company, creating natural revenue cycles without requiring individual companies to give up 50% stake.
“consumer demand. Broad purchasing power sustains profitability across the economy, giving all firms an incentive to share ownership. Now, again, you might argue, well, what's the proper balance of ownership? Does that mean that every mom and pop shop is going to give away uh a 50% stake to the county? No. It might be 5%, it might be 10%, it might be 20%. Uh but if 20% of every profitable company is uh has shares that are owned in trusts or banks or whatever, um that creates natural uh revenue cycles.”
Aggregate demand based on diverse property income (data centers, solar, robots, forests, etc.) is more stable than demand based on wages alone because when one property income stream fails, others compensate, whereas wage employment is binary (employed or unemployed).
“Again, aggregate demand is what everyone wants. And if aggregate demand is based mostly on wages, there's still some volatility there. That's not to say that property based income isn't going to have its own volatility. So for instance, if you have a rental property that's empty, your total income goes down. But if you have a diverse portfolio that's property based that's based on data centers and solar and robots and forests and everything else, then in aggregate, you're going to have a much more stable uh uh uh uh amount of aggregate demand.”
Consumer confidence metrics read sentiment about economic prospects but offer limited guidance when optimism diverges from actual income streams, making them unreliable guides for policy.
“Consumer confidence reads sentiment but offers li limited guidance when optimism diverges from real income streams.”
Post-labor economics makes sense even without automation because distributing property income more broadly improves demand resilience and prevents elite capture—making it a universally sound policy independent of automation timelines.
“one thing that I will I will point out is that this theory would apply whether or not we had an automated economy coming. Um this idea just makes sense is to uh is to is to ensure that more consumer demand comes from property. even without AI and robotics, we should be advocating for this.”
Post-labor economics differs fundamentally from Marxism, communism, and socialism because it preserves private property ownership and market mechanisms rather than abolishing them; the others eliminate the very tool post-labor economics uses to distribute broad dividends.
“Post labor economics keeps market and ownerships intact, rejecting command schemes that erase price signals. It solves post-wage demand by widening property stakes, not by abolishing them. This is the primary difference between post labor economics and all these other frameworks is that some people say, 'Oh, we have to abolish private property.' If you abolish private property, guess who owns it? The state, right?”
Globalization and labor arbitrage promised to make goods cheaper through offshoring, but the benefit accrued primarily to consumers in developed countries while employment moved overseas, leaving workers without additional purchasing power.
“this is one of the reasons that globalism has been so unpopular is because it's like yes we have made things we've made goods and services cheaper by offshoring our manufacturing to China. Um but now all those jobs are in China and so with labor arbitrage you guys still don't have that much more money. Um and then with automation on the rise guess what we have the machines generating as much of the wealth as possible. So again, you workers are kind of up the creek without a paddle.”
Distributing ownership at the county level thwarts technofudal concentration by ensuring power is rooted in democratic communities rather than concentrated in Silicon Valley tech giants.
“hedging technofudalism. Distributing ownership at the county level thwarts technofudal concentration by rooting power in democratic communities.”
Technofudalism—a system where corporations own everything and citizens are subscription-dependent renters—is the 'cyberpunk dystopia' that post-labor economics should actively prevent through distributed property ownership.
“technofudalism subscription everything models aka you will own nothing and be happy centralized control. The EI paradigm flip that flips that towards citizen equity.”
An ideal KPI must be both descriptive (accurately diagnose problems) and prescriptive (indicate what to do with the information), whereas traditional metrics like GDP and unemployment are largely descriptive only.
“what you're looking for, an ideal KPI is something that is both, uh descriptive and prescriptives. So descriptive means that it is accurately able to diagnose a problem and prescriptive means that it can uh indicate what you're supposed to do with that information.”
Socialism is closer to post-labor economics than other leftist frameworks but still fails because it kills private property—the very tool that post-labor economics uses to fund broad dividends; private property is the core differentiator between post-labor and socialist approaches.
“Socialism is closer to PLE but still kills private property. The very tool PLE uses to fund broad dividends. Private property is the primary anchor. Ownership is the core differentiator. PLE expands it. The others eliminate or curtail it.”
The federal government should remain as uninvolved as possible in post-labor economics implementation, particularly in early adoption phases, to preserve flexibility and avoid centralized capture.
“The federal government should be as uh uninvolved as possible with uh post labor economics at least in the early days.”
Post-labor interventions will have lead times of 18 months to 10 years before measurable results appear, making it optimal to start policy design and implementation now before unemployment reaches crisis levels (10-11% sustained for 2 years or 14% according to Congressional triggers).
“one thing that I will I will point out is that this theory would apply whether or not we had an automated economy coming. Um this idea just makes sense is to uh is to is to ensure that more consumer demand comes from property. even without AI and robotics, we should be advocating for this.”
Companies can adopt patron equity and ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) models that lock in customer loyalty while increasing the EAI score because employees become property owners.
“Companies patron equity and ESOP models lock in customer loyalty while nudging local EI scores upwards.”
Broader private ownership streams synchronize the interests of finance firms, local governments, and households around a single goal—resilient demand—because all stakeholders depend on sustained consumer spending.
“the concept of align incentives. Broader ownership streams synchronize the interests of finance firms and local governments around a single goal, resilient demand. Again, aggregate demand is what everyone wants.”
Scaling proven county pilots to state and ultimately federal/international levels is achievable only when evidence of success is already in hand, reducing risk and increasing political feasibility.
“Scaling proven county pilots can ladder up to the state, federal, and ultimately maybe even international frameworks with evidence already in hand. This is the number one reason uh to start small is because yes, some of these some of these solutions and measurements make more sense at a larger scale, but at the same time, if we can start small uh lower risk, lower blast radius with more parallel experiments, the better.”
Companies can adopt ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) and patron equity models that lock in customer loyalty while nudging local EAI scores upward, because companies cannot sell goods if their customers are broke—aggregate demand is the fundamental prerequisite for profitability.
“Companies patron equity and ESOP models lock in customer loyalty while nudging local EI scores upwards. So basically the logic here is that companies can't sell goods and services if their customers are broke. It's that simple. So it behooves everyone to have customers with money.”
Post-labor economics implementation has 18 months to 10 years lead time (not immediate like Fed rate adjustments) because it requires decentralized county and state policy changes, making early action critical before unemployment spikes and crisis response becomes reactive.
“EI is going to take longer. Um it's not just a matter of the Fed adjusting a rate. Uh but it's decentralized, meaning that every county and every state can do their own individual things to adjust those um those income streams. And so you're looking at a lead time of 18 months to four to five to um 10 years”
From first principles (laws of physics), there is no reason any desired good or service requires human participation—a house can be built entirely by robots, construction workers could be completely eliminated through full automation, and the same logic applies to all industries.
“imagine your ideal life h like what percentage of the things that you want and need in life actually require a human like first principles laws of physics how much of what you want needs like fundamentally requires a human to participate like take this house for instance I love living in this house there is no physical law there's no economic law that says this house must be built by humans. It's entirely possible to build it entirely with robots and AI.”
Broader ownership streams synchronize the interests of finance firms, local governments, and households around a single shared goal: resilient aggregate demand, creating alignment where previously conflicting objectives existed.
“Next up is the concept of align incentives. Broader ownership streams synchronize the interests of finance firms and local governments around a single goal, resilient demand.”
The theory of post-labor economics applies independently of automation—advocates should promote property-based income sources even without AI and robotics, because the underlying economics of ownership and resilience are sound regardless.
“one thing that I will I will point out is that this theory would apply whether or not we had an automated economy coming. Um this idea just makes sense is to uh is to is to ensure that more consumer demand comes from property. even without AI and robotics, we should be advocating for this.”
Unemployment reaching 10-11% sustained for 2 years is the threshold at which national policy makers will take action; Congress acts around 14% unemployment, and average unemployment during the Great Depression was 14-15% (peaking at 24%) but remaining above 10-12% for ~10 years.
“one of the things that people ask is like, when is all this going to happen? All that we need to see is unemployment at like 10 to 11% for 2 years before everyone's going to really take it seriously. Um, and based on more recent data, Congress will act uh when it hits 14%.”
Crypto and blockchain technologies may play a role in post-labor economics by enabling distributed property ownership and DAOs, but they are not sufficient without democratic consensus and policy reforms; Silicon Valley's belief that technology can solve these problems without government is 'hubris.'
“Crypto and blockchain can help but dem uh democratic and uh policy reforms are the pure uh sorry not pure true prerequisites for diffusing ownership. So some people and here's the logic behind it is that uh Silicon Valley and effective altruists and all those other people they see the government as fundamentally too slow and too broken to do anything which is why Sam Alman and Worldcoin are like we are going to single-handedly save you know solve UBI and and and know your customer and all that fun stuff. And it's like great yes technological innovation definitely helps these things but at the same time they're being told no by a bunch of governments.”
Shorter work weeks are theoretically beneficial (studies show 4-day weeks increase health, happiness, and productivity) but companies won't adopt them because they avoid labor costs by laying off half the workforce and increasing load on remaining workers rather than spreading work.
“studies have shown that if you shorten the work week to 4 days, uh, health and happiness goes up as well as productivity goes up. But even with that data, companies don't do that because companies are very, very skeptical and very slow to change.”
Banks have strong incentive to support property-based income streams because stable dividend and rent flows reduce credit risk and enable new loan products underwritten on asset income, creating profitable lending opportunities.
“Banks. Stable dividend and rent flows reduce credit risk and enable new loan products underwritten on an on asset income. So the idea here basically is that once we start pivoting from a wage-based income uh aggregate demand to a property based aggregate demand, then your local bank will be able to actually say, 'Hey, there's new products that we can offer based on this.'”
The Economic Agency Index is currently proposed and not finalized; it requires data gathering, dashboard development, and experimentation before it becomes operational as a policy measurement tool.
“So the formula, and by the way, this is a proposed formula. This hasn't been finalized. We actually need to get the data together and build the dashboard and and and do some experimentation”
Federal interest rate adjustments (primary Fed tool) have plentiful downstream impacts on lending and borrowing, which finance construction and workers, but these tools are blunt and cannot address the need for broad property ownership distribution.
“right now the Fed, one of the primary tools that they have is changing interest rates. You can lower interest rates, you can raise interest rates and that has uh plenty of downstream impacts on lending and borrowing. And of course uh lending and borrowing is used to do everything from finance construction to finance workers and those sorts of things.”
A market distortion is where prices don't actually match supply and demand, meaning the price mechanism loses its signaling function and misallocates resources.
“a market distortion is where prices don't actually match supply and demand”
Resource-based economics (like the Venus Project) is 'the dumbest idea possible'—no economist endorses it, and economists only mention it to mock and deride it; no serious economist, politician, or think tank takes RBE seriously.
“I know that a lot of people have asked me about the Venus Project and resource-based economies. That is the dumbest idea possible. Look it up. No economist has ever endorsed that idea. And in fact, the only time that economists mention resource-based economies is to mock and deride it. No serious economist or politician or uh think tank takes RBE seriously. It is a science fiction fantasy.”
Resource-Based Economy (RBE) is 'the dumbest idea possible' and has never been endorsed by serious economists; it is only mentioned by economists to mock and deride it.
“I know that a lot of people have asked me about the Venus Project and resource-based economies. That is the dumbest idea possible. Look it up. No economist has ever endorsed that idea. And in fact, the only time that economists mention resource-based economies is to mock and deride it. No serious economist or politician or uh think tank takes RBE seriously. It is a science fiction fantasy.”
Episode 4 of this series will cover interventions and solutions for implementing post-labor economics, including specific policy options counties can deploy.
“if you're relying too much on government transfers here's a list of uh options you can do. And this will be in uh episode 4 by the way all the interventions.”