Image Description: A ghost-like human figure composed of fragmented dollar bills and data fragments stands in an empty office, dissolving into the air. The left half of the image is rendered in warm copper and terracotta tones with candlestick charts on the wall; the right half shifts to cool blue-grey with the same motif. The floor shows a geometric chessboard pattern. Two empty desks and office chairs flank the figure — the office is abandoned. Context: This image illustrates the concept of "Ghost GDP": economic output that appears in national accounts but never circulates through real people. The accompanying paper analyzes how AI simultaneously displaces physical and cognitive labor, breaks the consumption cycle, and produces statistical growth without purchasing power. It connects this structural rupture to the post-growth debate and argues — through the perspectives of Trump, Xi, Merz, BRICS, and institutional investors — that a global machine tax financing an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is the only systemic response. The window for action is still open. But it is closing. Ghost GDP: Growth Without Prosperity? Through AI? FOSSEA³M Research Group. CC SA BY 4.0.
AI builds Ghost GDP: growth that never reaches people. Machines don't pay taxes, don't consume, don't stabilize markets. New paper: who profits, who pays, and why a machine tax and UBI could be the solution:
y.lab.nrw/ghost-gdp
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#GhostGDP #MachineTax #UBI #AIEconomy #GenAI #AI #Agentic
