A rising tide raises all rents

You're a rent seeker. It's an economist insult. It's devastating. You're devastated right now. Michael from The Good Place (paraphrased) Imagine, for a second, that AI really does become too cheap to meter. What happens next? I've heard hype that says there'll be a productivity boom to rival the internet, electricity, and spinning loom. That ideas and skill and taste will become the new currency, that 5 people can do the work of 500. Maybe. I think this is directionally correct but a bit exaggerated. But here's a more interesting question: Who benefits from that productivity? If software is no longer scarce, what still is? Where are the bottlenecks? How does that shape the world, and what emergent behaviors result? I posit that it partly goes to the people building, partly goes to incumbents, mostly goes to landlords and other rent-seekers, and hardly any of it goes to everyone else. To avoid that situation, we need an equivalent of Land-Value-Tax that works for scarce resources other…