A reading club with a view to the future

093 Jeff Booth: The Price of Tomorrow

The current monetary system is doomed, and deflation is the solution for an abundant future.

Jeff Booth: The Price of Tomorrow

Summary

In The Price of Tomorrow, Jeff Booth argues that the current monetary system is unsustainable and that inflation is leading us towards economic collapse. The solution to this problem is to embrace deflation as a necessary step towards a future of abundance. Booth believes that technology is driving the world towards an era of deflation, where goods and services will become increasingly cheaper, and money will increase in value. However, the current monetary system, built on debt and inflation, is incompatible with this future. Booth proposes a new monetary system based on deflationary principles, such as a universal basic income and a more equitable distribution of wealth.

About

Title: The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future

Author: Jeff Booth

Year of publication: 2020

Publisher: Portfolaio

Length in hours: 5 hours and 49 minutes

5 main ideas

  1. Inflation is leading us towards economic collapse.
  2. Technology is driving us towards a future of abundance, where deflation will be the norm.
  3. The current monetary system is built on debt and inflation, making it incompatible with a deflationary future.
  4. A new monetary system based on deflationary principles, such as a universal basic income and a more equitable distribution of wealth, is needed.
  5. Embracing deflation is the key to an abundant future.
Jeff Booth: The Price of Tomorrow

5 funny quotes

  1. "As a species, we are excellent at solving problems. We are not so good at preventing them."
  2. "The good news is that technology is making everything faster and easier. The bad news is that we are running out of things to do."
  3. "The great thing about being a futurist is that you can always claim to be ahead of your time."
  4. "In the future, all jobs will be either supervising robots or being supervised by robots."
  5. "The best way to predict the future is to create it. Or failing that, to ask a futurist."

5 thought-provoking quotes​

  1. "The idea that we will soon experience technological unemployment on a scale that will dwarf the Great Depression is not a hypothesis. It is a fact."
  2. "If we continue on our current trajectory, we will become more and more subservient to technology until we no longer have a say in how we live."
  3. "The economic system we have built is inherently flawed and cannot withstand the transformative power of exponential technologies."
  4. "The price of tomorrow is not just financial. It is also the price we pay in terms of our humanity."
  5. "The future is already here, but most of us are not yet ready to confront it."

5 dilemmas

  1. How do we balance the benefits of automation and artificial intelligence with the potential job losses and economic dislocation that they may cause?
  2. How do we ensure that technological progress benefits everyone, not just a select few?
  3. How do we protect our privacy and security in a world where data is increasingly valuable and easily accessible?
  4. How do we regulate emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain in a way that promotes innovation and protects consumers?
  5. How do we ensure that our values and ethics are reflected in the technologies we create and use, rather than being subsumed by them?

5 examples

  1. The rise of self-driving cars and the impact on the transportation industry, including companies like Uber and Lyft.
  2. The growing use of automation in industries such as manufacturing and retail, leading to job losses and economic dislocation.
  3. The emergence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, and their potential to disrupt the financial sector.
  4. The impact of artificial intelligence on the job market, with some estimates suggesting that up to half of all jobs could be automated in the coming years.
  5. The use of predictive analytics and big data in fields such as healthcare and criminal justice, and the ethical dilemmas that arise as a result.

Referenced books

  1. "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology" by Ray Kurzweil
  2. "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail" by Clayton M. Christensen
  3. "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" by Klaus Schwab
  4. "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
  5. "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power" by Shoshana Zuboff

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"As a species, we are excellent at solving problems. We are not so good at preventing them."

Jeff Booth: The Price of Tomorrow
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