by Longboyy February 10, 2024
Get the Hasan Economics mug.1) The jobs that AI (the latest generation of computing technology) will largely be isolated to many of the same jobs the previous generation of computers created, facilitated or enabled, and the technology will allow the workers left in a given job to do the work of 10, decimating the demand for any specific set of skills under the previous technical paradigm. The upshot is that - for a time - jobs which are not dependent on computers (e.g. carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen) will be less impacted by the rollout of ML and AI. And while, say, AI may beget only 10% of the previous need for architects using computers to draft, there will remain a need for program managers, prompt engineers, developers, mathematicians and system engineers needed to centrally manage AI and ML systems. 2) Eventually technology will advance the point that corporations push to have androids perform the remaining jobs that only humans could perform (e.g. carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen)and regions will need to have that debate on whether technology and commerce are the more important that human-centricity and a moralized human populace. Put forth by marketer, Zackery West (FlashPointLabs) on February 8th, 2024.
"I'm a mailman, so, according to West's Theory Of Isolated Economic Decimation, my job delivering mail should be fine as the Postal Service grows more efficient at correctly finding addresses to route dead letters to, and scheduling delivery drivers."
by Zack West February 18, 2024
Get the West's Theory Of Isolated Economic Decimation mug.Summary: AI will specifically destroy jobs created by computers in the first place, preserving 'offline' jobs, while minimally impacting work quality, and preserving gross productivity.
1) The jobs that AI destroys will largely be isolated to many of the same jobs the computers created, facilitated or enabled, 2) The more that workers in a given field were reliant upon computers, the lower the percentage of them will be required to accomplish the same output after AI is deployed; this reduction in demand for workers could be up to 90% in some market segments. 3) When this happens, work quality only suffers slightly; 4) When this happens, productivity is not reduced, and some companies may scale-up fewer workers to surpass previous productivity levels.
The take-away is that jobs that were largely or entirely not dependent on computers (or which predate computer) will be less impacted by the rollout of ML and AI. These jobs include carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen.
This will remain true until corporations push culture if not laws to have androids perform those remaining jobs left to humans (e.g. carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen). At that point, society will debate whether productivity is more important that anthropocentrism and protecting a moralized, industrious, human populations.
Put forth by Zackery West, marketer, in 2024.
reworded and resubmitted
1) The jobs that AI destroys will largely be isolated to many of the same jobs the computers created, facilitated or enabled, 2) The more that workers in a given field were reliant upon computers, the lower the percentage of them will be required to accomplish the same output after AI is deployed; this reduction in demand for workers could be up to 90% in some market segments. 3) When this happens, work quality only suffers slightly; 4) When this happens, productivity is not reduced, and some companies may scale-up fewer workers to surpass previous productivity levels.
The take-away is that jobs that were largely or entirely not dependent on computers (or which predate computer) will be less impacted by the rollout of ML and AI. These jobs include carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen.
This will remain true until corporations push culture if not laws to have androids perform those remaining jobs left to humans (e.g. carpenters, police, paramedics, doctors, refuse workers, power linesmen). At that point, society will debate whether productivity is more important that anthropocentrism and protecting a moralized, industrious, human populations.
Put forth by Zackery West, marketer, in 2024.
reworded and resubmitted
"I'm a USPS door delivery mailman, so, according to West's Theory Of Specific Economic Destruction, my job delivering mail should be fine even if the Postal Service grows more efficient at correctly routing addresses and scheduling delivery drivers."
by Zack West February 18, 2024
Get the West's Theory Of Specific Economic Destruction mug.Also known as ECON101 - A phrase styled after the usual name of an introductory economics module at university or college. It's usually used by libertarians and conservatives to explain away the problems of capitalism, with the implication that their interlocutor "simply doesn't understand basic economics", even though a lot of said basic economics go on to be debunked in Economics 201.
Lib: "The minimum wage was introduced so that every employed person could afford food and rent, but ever since the Reagan administration, wages haven't been following the massive increases in productivity, as well as skyrocketing rent."
Cons: "Bruh, that's dumb - raising wages means people must get fired! Also, rent is increasing because more people want to rent! Supply and demand - it's just Economics 101."
Cons: "Bruh, that's dumb - raising wages means people must get fired! Also, rent is increasing because more people want to rent! Supply and demand - it's just Economics 101."
by obnoxious_leftie July 10, 2022
Get the Economics 101 mug.The micro-macro divide: Economics struggles to coherently connect the behavior of individual agents (assumed to be rational, self-interested) with the emergent phenomena of the whole economy (booms, busts, inflation). Models that work for a household or firm fail catastrophically at the national level (the fallacy of composition). The hard problem is that the economy is a complex, adaptive system of billions of interacting, emotional, and sometimes irrational people. It's like trying to predict the weather by studying a single molecule of air. The elegant mathematical models provide a comforting illusion of certainty but repeatedly break down in the face of real-world crises, bubbles, and panics.
Example: For an individual, saving money is prudent. But if everyone suddenly increases savings simultaneously (the "paradox of thrift"), aggregate demand plummets, businesses fail, unemployment rises, and people end up poorer overall. The rational individual act leads to a collectively irrational outcome. The hard problem: Economics cannot be reliably scaled up. Policies that seem sound in theory (austerity, deregulation) can trigger disaster in practice because the model's simplifying assumptions (perfect information, rational actors) evaporate in the chaotic reality of herds, fear, and speculation. The economy is a story we tell ourselves, and sometimes the characters rebel against the plot. Hard Problem of Economics.
by Enkigal January 24, 2026
Get the Hard Problem of Economics mug.The pervasive psychological injury resulting from chronic economic precarity, exploitation, and systemic financial violence. This is not merely stress about bills, but the deep-seated damage caused by wage theft, inescapable debt, predatory lending, homelessness, the constant threat of destitution, and the humiliating gauntlet of means-tested social services. It rewires the nervous system for constant scarcity, destroys future-oriented thinking, and inflicts a moral injury by framing poverty as personal failure within a system designed to create it. It is the trauma of being treated as disposable capital.
Example: A gig worker sleeps in their car, checks their phone obsessively for the next ride, and survives on adrenaline and fear. They develop severe anxiety, insomnia, and a dissociative sense that their life is not their own. This is economic trauma: the body and mind breaking down under the relentless uncertainty and dehumanizing logic of precarious labor. The trauma is systemic, baked into an economic order that extracts mental and physical health as a cost of doing business.
by Dumu The Void January 27, 2026
Get the Economic Trauma mug.A delusional disorder born from the extreme pressures and inherent absurdities of late-stage capitalism and financial precarity. It can take two forms: 1) The Grindset Psychosis of the aspiring billionaire who believes they are just "one hack" away from limitless wealth, acting with ruthless, delusional grandeur. 2) The Precarity Psychosis of the impoverished person who internalizes their condition as a cosmic judgement, developing complex superstitions around money, or believing they are trapped in a literal debtors' prison constructed by invisible financial entities. Both reflect a break with the shared reality of economic life.
Example: A crypto-obsessed influencer, deep in debt, begins livestreaming from their car, claiming they are "intentionally manifesting bankruptcy to trigger the quantum wealth singularity." They believe numbers on screens are direct messages from the "market gods," and that by sacrificing sleep, they are "hacking time itself." This is economic psychosis: the magical thinking required to survive (or believe you can win) in a volatile, predatory economic system has metastasized into a full-blown financial messiah complex.
by Dumu The Void January 27, 2026
Get the Economic Psychosis mug.