Elon Musk: Money won’t matter in 10 years | The Economist

Money won't matter in 2036. >> [laughter]. >> I'm not sure that the people who bought. your shares think that money won't. matter in 2036. >> what do you want money for? You you want money for goods and. services. Well, if that is so abundance. that. uh there's more. that the robots and AI are providing. more goods and services than you than. any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for. in that case? >> Let's agree that that could be where we.

end up. I'm I'm concerned about the. road, and we live you know, we live in. democracies, and people are very worried. about this. So, I guess two questions. Firstly, do you have to have massive. redistribution from people like you. to the people who are losing their jobs? Do you need to pay more tax? Do you have. much higher taxes on capital so that you. fund some kind of universal income? Otherwise, what do people live off? >> I I think that that the Treasury should. just simply issue people checks.

Oh, you're saying. >> the revenue coming from? I mean, I'm. enough of an economist if you just issue. checks, you're going to have inflation. >> Yeah, these things were relevant in the. past. They will not be relevant in the. future. So, like inflation is simply the. ratio of money to the to to goods and. services. So, if the goods and services. output. increases dramatically, if it increases. you know, 1,000%, you can increase the. you can literally. print or these days change the database.

No no print money. It's you create money. in the in the database. Um provided the. creation of that money uh. is less than the rate at which goods and. services increase, um. you you actually have deflation. So, I'll make a prediction, which is that. deflation will be the issue, not. inflation. The because because as the output of. goods and services increases, um if if. the output of goods and services. increases faster than the money supply, you will have deflation.

>> I'm actually I'm perfectly willing to. believe that. You may well be right. >> of fact. I mean, you may well be right. But I I'm I'm really. hung up on how we get from the current. polarized, angry, fearful. polity we have now to this nirvana. And. and I think you could you can paint a. picture where people are so scared by. this, you know, they essentially try to stop. it. Maybe they can't, but you get. nationalized, there's a kind of, you. know, far left government, uh there's. exorbitant tax increases, the kind of.

economy crumbles because people are so. worried about a future which does sound. quite scary as you describe it. So, how. do you how do you handle the politics. now? >> and terrifying. If you ask me on any. given day, I I I. In fact, even intraday, I've gone from. exhilaration to terror regarding AI.