Here’s a letter to the Washington Post.
Editor:
Fabien Curto Millet and Diane Coyle wisely note that, contrary to the fears of many people, AI poses no more of a threat to the prospects of human beings finding gainful employment than was posed by the harnessing of steam power, electrification, and other labor-saving technological advances in the past (“Here’s what will really affect jobs in the age of AI,” October 19). But the more fundamental point that lurks only implicitly in their essay deserves to be made explicit – namely, job opportunities will exist as long as we human beings have wants to be met, and entrepreneurs and workers are free to bargain with each other to find ways to satisfy those wants.
Unless AI becomes godlike and fully satisfies each and every human desire, leaving no one wanting for anything, humans will have demands that can be met only by cooperating commercially with other humans. This cooperation creates jobs.
Jobs exist to satisfy the wants of those who pay to have those jobs performed. In order to eliminate employment prospects, therefore, technology would have to fully and forever satisfy every last human want. Technology, in other words, would literally have to create heaven on earth – an outcome in which no one needs a job because everyone is infinitely wealthy. Unfortunately, this outcome isn’t in the cards.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
