Will Progress Set Us Free

For this session we'll read John Maynard Keynes's 1930 essay "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" alongside Scott Alexander's 2014 essay "Meditations on Moloch." Writing in the depths of the Great Depression, Keynes asks his readers to look a century ahead and imagine a world transformed by technological progress and capital accumulation. Eventually, he predicts, humanity may finally solve its "economic problem": satisfying our material needs will cease to occupy most of our lives, leaving us with the unfamiliar problem of deciding what to do with our newfound freedom.

Alexander offers a darker possibility. "Moloch" is his name for the competitive dynamics that can leave individuals, firms, and societies pursuing outcomes none of them actually want. A company that sacrifices profit for humane values may lose to one that doesn't; a nation that refuses an arms race may be dominated by one that participates. Read together, the essays ask whether technological progress can ever deliver the liberation Keynes imagined. If we become vastly richer, do we eventually get to stop optimizing and decide what our prosperity is for—or will competition simply absorb our newfound abundance and force us to keep running?

The readings can be found here and here