No one can predict what the future will look like but it's still interesting to consider the factors at play. Capitalism, in theory, works equally well with a debt/inflation model or an "abundance"/deflation system. Traditionally we have a little inflation to keep up spending rather than saving and debt provides the growth. The downside can feel like we are a hamster stuck running on a wheel trying to get ahead. We get more stuff, houses, cars and we accumulate more debt. As long as we are productive this works. We incur debt but use those funds to do something that returns more than the cost of the debt. Or we can just get burdened down by debt. Technology tends to be deflationary. The price of computer chips continues to go down and the capability of those chips goes up. It's the same with the internet, labor costs, knowledge is almost free and it's available to everyone, it's the same with music, entertainment, etc. It could soon be the case with energy. In the past there was still more traditional industries than tech but that is changing. At some point you can see that tech will be most of the economy and then deflation and "abundance" will be the dominant force (more than likely). This is where people worry about lack of jobs, Universal Basic Income and no one spending money because everything costs less as time goes on. The good news there is that if there are no jobs (that's not a given) Universal Basic Income wouldn't be as costly as it would be at the moment. A deflationary environment is one with "abundance". Most things are inexpensive or "free" so to provide what you need (UBI) wouldn't cost all that much necessarily. It's also not a given that UBI would be required. It may be that there will always be jobs, overseeing the automation or whatever but you just won't have to work fulltime and you can devote your life to more meaningful things. With automation and even more abundant food may be basically free to the average person, it's the same with housing, medical care, transportation, electricity. Things aren't likely to turn out quite that predictably but many of the things we worry about will probably not turn out to be the things we actually need to worry about. The transition to a deflationary world will also probably be a bigger problem than the ultimate stabilized deflationary world. Of course we could all blow ourselves up or spend all of our free time fighting with each other and not getting along but it doesn't have to be that way. Human nature being what it is, maybe it does have to be that way?
