ALTHOUGH President Donald Trump has attempted to reduce the United States’ government debt through its DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), he has also increased spending in other areas.
His ambitions for creating a massive missile defense program, for example, will lead to more spending.
Many of this is being paid for by tariffs as well as increased investments, but they are not enough to push back on America’s insurmountable debt problem.
But it isn’t just the US that has to deal with this issue. China, Japan, South Korea, Europe and basically most of the developed world has debt issues. Most of this is caused by the nature of the modern economic system as well as everybody’s demographic situation.
One way these countries hope to get out of this problem is through artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Elon Musk believes we are three, maybe five, years away from AI and humanoid robotic mass adoption.
Remember the iPhone? Imagine that but with humanoid robots, and behind it, AI.
Analysts believe that this will bring in trillions of dollars in revenue by boosting productivity.
It probably will, though whether or not it can solve developed country’s debt problems is only conjecture at this point. Economic dysfunction brought developed nations to where they are now.
The same is true for China and many developing countries. Technology can save them in the short term, but without long-term structural reform, additional productivity will just allow the system to take on more debt.
Sooner or later, something has to change. Trump’s tariffs are the first part of that.
The rejoinder to this is that we just turn over our economic decision making to AI, and I think that opens up a whole can of worms.
So far the world economy is in a precarious state, and the best that the optimist can hope is that tech can function like a life raft to a sinking economic ship./PN
