Columbia Economist Baffled as to Why the Masses Aren’t Rising Up Against Elon Musk

Economist Adam Tooze, from Columbia University, expressed bafflement over the lack of widespread outrage toward tech mogul Elon Musk, despite his immense wealth and the implications of his ventures. During a podcast episode, Tooze tackled the escalating AI arms race and its impact on society. He noted that the AI boom is reshaping the social contract under capitalism and cited a Bank of International Settlements report revealing that under a human-level superintelligence scenario, labor's income share could plummet from 54 percent to a mere 20 percent.

This drastic shift in wealth distribution raises questions about political power and societal solidarity. Tooze argued that Musk's extraordinary enrichment, reflected in his potential trillion-dollar net worth, is a profound rupture in the social contract, questioning whether citizens can still identify as part of the same society.

He warned that the current AI boom resembles an unchecked "Merchants of Death" scenario, where global oligarchs dictate the technological trajectory, rather than a government-led initiative. While the full extent of AI's influence on the labor market remains uncertain, the potential for catastrophic economic inequality is a pressing concern, echoing the dangers of the 19th-century labor movement's Luddite protests against technological exploitation.