Keynes, Ai and the “economic possibilities for our grandchildren.”
Keynes saw where AI might take us
.Photographer: Tim Gidal/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In 1930, John Maynard Keynes took time out from thinking about the Great Depression, which was throwing millions out of work, to write a charming essay about the “economic possibilities for our grandchildren.”
Our grandchildren would be able to meet all their material needs by working 15 hours a week. But this would leave what Keynes called “the permanent problem of the human race.” How to use the resulting freedom from economic necessity to live a good life — or as Keynes put it “how to live wisely and agreeably and well.”
AI may be about to prove Keynes spectacularly right just in time for his century deadline.
The AI revolution is beginning to do for knowledge work what the combine harvester did for agricultural jobs and the factory did for mechanical jobs — mechanizing routine tasks that were once reserved for human beings
Jobs provide people with a combination of psychological benefits: social connections, pride and self-worth, a sense of accomplishment and, not to put too fine a point on it, meaning.
The reason knowledge workers burn the midnight oil is that they invest so much of themselves in their work. They not only derive personal satisfaction from exercising their brainpower. They derive social satisfaction and prize the status that comes from being a highly regarded lawyer or academic.
Adrian Wooldridge Bloomberg February 27, 2026
A former writer at the Economist, he is author of “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World
IQ och meritokratin
RE: Keynes och Wooldridge borde ha tänkt att den frågan redan har ett svar. Vi pensionärer, som inte ens arbetar 15 timmar i veckan, brottas redan med den frågan, dagligen.
En sak man kan göra är att sätta sig på parkbänken och med en kollega dryfta frågan om påsken är tidig i år. Man kan också spela golf eller bridge. Hur kul är det?
Då är det bättre att ägna sig åt sin blogg.
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