[phkahler]

I'm starting to believe "economic growth" is fiction. Just because an item has a higher price does not mean it's higher output. If we measure the value of things based on say the energy + labor cost to produce it, economic output (or GDP) will look very different. I'm not saying that's a good measure, but that there are other ways to look at it and the current one seems broken.

When Elon Musk says the only way to solve the US debt crisis is through automation and AI to boost GDP, it makes no sense. Government revenue has less and less to do with output and more to do with taxes on labor, so automation will make the problem worse. I'm not saying we shouldn't automate things, but that the ideas of cause->effect when it come to money are not very well thought out - yes, including my own.

[rtkwe]

They do adjust for higher prices (inflation) in GDP calculations though.

We will have to drastically change the tax base if automation really takes off. Every individual company or industry is rushing to flush out their workers but someone has to make money to buy their products eventually and I doubt they'll enjoy the level of taxes needed to maintain an economy if they all manage to dump their employees at the same time.