Becoming Human on a16z

There is an astonishing amount of bad thinking in this piece. More than even normal. 1. The chart of what is rising in cost versus falling is far easier to explain as "Stuff everyone has to buy to live" versus "stuff they don't." 2. The rise in wages for HVAC is below inflation, and the other trades even more below inflation. Neither is even close to the rise in stocks, CEO pay, or yields from private equity 3. Jevon's Paradox is that efficiency leads to use, not "spend more on what is more productive". Your description is just wrong. In Jevon's Paradox the classic example is when the cost of a unit of energy falls, the aggregate energy use grows. It is not "Things that are more productive are more expensive" The underlying phenomenon you are grasping for is much simpler to understand - when more wealth enters a system, it forces prices up. As a result some services disappear (trying finding a sewing machine repair shop) and some get more expensive, because those people are competing for the same necessities, housing, food, medical, as the people with excess wealth. Even the orchestra example is a whiff. Orchestras declined because of taste coupled with the proliferation of entertainment alternatives. It is likely they were only sustained as long as they were by a static economic state (the princes). Chamber music is incredibly productive when one includes radio, Spotify, and digital recording. This article is tendentious nonsense, but predictable for people pushing AI.