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James Blake
2K posts
James Blake
@B1akeJR
Analyst, family man, lover of art and web technology. discord: jb1ake pro.swoosh
Katılım Temmuz 2017
671 Takip Edilen310 Takipçiler
AI can only justify its price by dismantling the economy that pays for it.
It’s the same conclusion I keep coming to…the unescapable money loop!
x.com/b1akejr/status…
Elias Al@iam_elias1
Two economists just published a mathematical proof that AI will destroy the economy. Not might. Not could. Will — if nothing changes. The paper is called "The AI Layoff Trap." Published March 2, 2026. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Boston University. Peer reviewed. Mathematically modeled. The conclusion is one sentence. "At the limit, firms automate their way to boundless productivity and zero demand." An economy that produces everything. And sells it to nobody. Here is how you get there. A company fires 500 workers and replaces them with AI. A competitor fires 700 to keep up. Another fires 1,000. Every company is behaving rationally. Every company is following the incentives correctly. And every company is building a trap for itself. Because the workers who were fired were also customers. When they lose their jobs faster than the economy can absorb them, they stop spending. Consumer demand falls. Companies respond by cutting costs — which means automating more workers — which means less spending — which means more falling demand — which means more automation. The loop has no natural exit. The researchers tested every proposed solution. Universal basic income. Capital income taxes. Worker equity participation. Upskilling programs. Corporate coordination agreements. Every single one failed in the model. The only intervention that worked: a Pigouvian automation tax — a per-task levy charged every time a company replaces a human with AI, forcing them to price in the demand they are destroying before they pull the trigger. No government has implemented this. No major economy is seriously discussing it. Meanwhile the numbers are already tracking the curve. 100,000 tech workers laid off in 2025. 92,000 more in the first months of 2026. Jack Dorsey fired half of Block's workforce and said publicly: "Within the next year, the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion." Nobody is doing anything wrong. Companies are following their incentives perfectly. That is exactly the problem. Rational behavior. At scale. Simultaneously. With no mechanism to stop it. Two economists built the math. The math leads to one place. Source: Falk & Tsoukalas · Wharton School + Boston University · arxiv.org/pdf/2603.20617
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I still don’t get the concept behind life.
WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE HERE FOR?
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Sounds great if you own xAI, Tesla and SpaceX.
I am an advocate for the technology. But I cannot stop pulling on the thread and the money trail never resolves.
AI replaces the workers…then Government sends everyone checks instead. But the government got its money from taxing those workers. They’re gone now.
Next..Corporate tax? These seven companies have spent decades making certain that doesn’t work.
So the government prints money and on the assumption that AI makes everything cheap enough that it doesn’t matter, I’m assuming that’s Elon’s point..
Except it won’t make everything cheap. Software, Digital goods I understand, but there’s still the same amount of land, the same number of houses, the same energy grid.
Give everyone a substantial check and watch what happens to the scarce assets everyone wants, the property prices when millions of people are given the same new money.
Cheap streaming. Unaffordable housing, healthcare, energy. That’s the future this actually describes
And I keep hearing ‘abundance’ as though AI companies are going to make things cheaper out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re publicly traded. They answer to shareholders. They’ll capture the margin, not pass it on. Why else are trillions being spent and markets pricing these companies the way they are!
Competition is the only thing that forces prices down…
and you need a hundred billion to compete now.
I’m not saying Elon’s wrong about the technology. I think he’s right. That’s the part that keeps me up…
The version of this that works for the people who already own everything looks nothing like the version everyone else gets!
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Actually, AI/Robotics will mean everyone can have a penthouse if they want. The output of goods & services will be several orders of magnitude higher than today’s economy. Read the Iain Banks Culture books for the best imagining of how it will be. That said, what is the future you want? Amazing abundance seems the best to me.
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@elonmusk @Not_the_Bee I want to see it output more coastline and breach front.. and if everyone has a penthouse, who’s living downstairs?
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Actually, AI/Robotics will mean everyone can have a penthouse if they want. The output of goods & services will be several orders of magnitude higher than today’s economy.
Read the Iain Banks Culture books for the best imagining of how it will be.
That said, what is the future you want? Amazing abundance seems the best to me.
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Sounds great if you own xAI, Tesla and SpaceX.
I am an advocate for the technology. But I cannot stop pulling on the thread and the money trail never resolves.
AI replaces the workers…then Government sends everyone checks instead. But the government got its money from taxing those workers. They’re gone now.
Next..Corporate tax? These seven companies have spent decades making certain that doesn’t work.
So the government prints money and on the assumption that AI makes everything cheap enough that it doesn’t matter, I’m assuming that’s Elon’s point..
Except it won’t make everything cheap. Software, Digital goods I understand, but there’s still the same amount of land, the same number of houses, the same energy grid.
Give everyone a substantial check and watch what happens to the scarce assets everyone wants, the property prices when millions of people are given the same new money.
Cheap streaming. Unaffordable housing, healthcare, energy. That’s the future this actually describes
And I keep hearing ‘abundance’ as though AI companies are going to make things cheaper out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re publicly traded. They answer to shareholders. They’ll capture the margin, not pass it on. Why else are trillions being spent and markets pricing these companies the way they are!
Competition is the only thing that forces prices down…
and you need a hundred billion to compete now.
I’m not saying Elon’s wrong about the technology. I think he’s right. That’s the part that keeps me up…
The version of this that works for the people who already own everything looks nothing like the version everyone else gets!
Elon Musk@elonmusk
Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI. AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.
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Anyone else in their 30s having the “what are you doing with your life” talk with themselves?
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@DesLucrece @iconic__culture appreciate that. the whole concept is brilliant — you turned a collectible into an experience. that’s rare. proud to hold #028 and can’t wait to have it on my wall as well.
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@B1akeJR @iconic__culture Absolutly means the world that this took you back just like it did me. Made my month my friend!
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update:
Pulled a 1/1 and I need a minute.
BitMON #028. signed by @DesLucrece. holographic.
everything I said about the experience being the art? still true. but holding the proof hits different.
James Blake@B1akeJR
the fact that @DesLucrece made physical rip packs for BitMON at Art Basel is exactly the kind of unhinged art x collectibles energy I’m here for. Tolstoy said art is one person transmitting a feeling to another. and right now I have the sweaty palms. the irrational hope. that moment before you tear the foil where anything is possible. I haven’t felt like this since childhood. transported back to simpler times. and honestly? we need more of that. that’s what makes this art. not just the piece inside — the experience of revealing it. wish me luck hitting the bullseye!
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the fact that @DesLucrece made physical rip packs for BitMON at Art Basel is exactly the kind of unhinged art x collectibles energy I’m here for.
Tolstoy said art is one person transmitting a feeling to another. and right now I have the sweaty palms. the irrational hope. that moment before you tear the foil where anything is possible.
I haven’t felt like this since childhood. transported back to simpler times. and honestly? we need more of that.
that’s what makes this art. not just the piece inside — the experience of revealing it.
wish me luck hitting the bullseye!
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@SahilBloom Nobody’s burnt out from working too hard. They’re burnt out from working hard and still feeling behind.
Your grandad didn't have it easy. He just didn't have Instagram.
x.com/b1akejr/status…
James Blake@B1akeJR
Nobody’s burnt out from working too hard. They’re burnt out from working hard and still feeling behind. Your grandad didn't have it easy. He just didn't have Instagram. Were housing-to-income ratios better? Yes. But framing that as "they worked less hard" is cope dressed up as analysis. A 6-day week in a factory wasn't easy mode — he just wasn't documenting it. The real issue is comparison. Every previous generation only had visibility of the people on their street, in their office, maybe in a magazine. Now you've got a 24/7 window into the lives of the 0.01% — people whose Monday morning is a villa in Positano while yours is a Teams call with someone who should've sent an email. Burnout isn't just "I work too hard." It's "I work this hard and I'm still nowhere near the life I've been shown I should expect." That gap between expectation and reality is where the suffering lives. And that expectation wasn't set by boomers — it was set by an algorithm that profits from you feeling like you're behind. The fix isn't proving that previous generations had it easier so you can feel justified in your frustration. The fix is switching off the feed, sitting with the discomfort, and asking yourself what YOU actually want from your life — not what someone else's highlight reel made you think you should want. Entitlement isn't wanting a good life. Entitlement is believing you're owed one without defining what "good" even means to you personally.
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I'm increasingly convinced that burnout doesn't come from working long hours or weekends. The people I know who burned out were the ones who were really bored with their work, not the ones who worked the most hours. Burnout comes from working on things that don't energize you.
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@unusual_whales And marketing is just the start. Follow the money on what happens when AI replaces jobs at scale — workers are the taxpayers, consumers, and demand. Lose them, lose all three.
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65% of marketing jobs may not survive AI, per AdWeek.
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The market isn’t wrong. It’s pricing in something nobody wants to say out loud. AI can only justify its price by dismantling the economy that pays for it. Don’t believe me. Just follow the money.
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So AI wins. They own more. And more. Of less. And less. Until they own everything. But what’s left to own in a broken economy? What does everyone else survive on?
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