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

by Jeff Booth

Quite plausibly, to keep driving growth against an exponentially increasing technology deflation, global debt could become a number so high that the only way out is to hit the reset button. The truth is we have probably already passed that point at which a complete reset is required. Our technology boom will cause another kind of boom.

The simple power of technology is that it allows for abundance without the same amount of jobs or income... if we let it. It is a fact that we better get used to if we want that same abundance in our lives.

In a world that seems more divisive with each passing day, it is worth remembering that intellectual debate to find better answers is the goal of science and the very thing that has allowed great leaps forward for mankind. To quote Karl Popper again, “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, it’s the refusal to acquire it.”

a reset of debt is needed in any truly viable solution. That reset will likely be painful and could erase vast fortunes overnight while also creating new ones. Similar resets have happened in the past. There will be winners and losers depending on where bets are placed.

What if, instead of trying to stop deflation at all costs, we embrace it? As technology spreads, deflation happens at the rate it should. Deflation becomes something celebrated because it means that we are getting more for less. We allow ourselves to accept abundance. Along that continuum, as technology removes jobs and fewer overall jobs are needed, prices will keep falling, allowing those who lose jobs a way to share in the benefit of technology abundance without massive transfers of wealth. If technology-driven price declines continue to the point of something becoming free, we let that happen, too. People will no longer have to be on an endless treadmill to pay for things that are constantly rising in price. As hard as that might be for us to accept, because it is such a radical change to the way things are today, it seems to me that it is the only real choice we have.