Money Won't Matter in 2036 - Should You Believe It?

The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, just told The Economist that money won't matter a decade from now. Not that it'll look different, but that it won't matter. And he laid out the mechanism: AI and robots producing more goods and services than humans can possibly consume, governments simply issuing money to people, and deflation instead of inflation because output grows faster than the money supply. In this episode, Karl Eggerss takes the argument seriously rather than dismissing it. Also, he finds that part of it is textbook-correct and part of it falls apart the moment you push on it. What we get into: Why technology really is deflationary, and the history that proves it The one thing robots can't manufacture — and why it breaks the whole prediction Baumol's cost disease, explained with a string quartet Why abundance is a production question and universal income is a distribution question What Keynes got right in 1930, and what he got completely wrong Five practical adjustments for planning in a split-price economy The most likely version of the next decade isn't "money stops mattering." It's that ordinary goods keep getting cheaper while the scarce things like land, care, healthcare, time keep getting more expensive. That distinction changes how you plan.