Economist Alex Imas argues that AI automation does not destroy value, it relocates it. When supply becomes abundant and cheap, scarcity shifts to what machines cannot replicate: human presence, provenance, care, taste, and relationship. That is the core thesis of his post-commodity economy framework.
The piece cuts through the standard jobs-lost-versus-jobs-gained debate by asking a different question: what new demand gets unlocked when supply costs collapse? History shows that abundance in one domain reliably creates new premiums elsewhere. The specific mechanism Imas identifies, relational and reputational work becoming more economically valuable as commodity work gets automated, is the part worth reading in full.
NLW walks through the implications for how labor markets reprice over the next decade and which sectors absorb displaced demand. The original Imas essay is linked in the description. The argument is incomplete without the economic scaffolding behind it, which is exactly why the source is worth your time.
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