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Notes -
(Trigger warnings: another AI post; Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
I want to talk about the economy in the face of the AI revolution, but let's go back to the basics first.
What is the purpose of a company? Not the stated one, the original one.
To provide value to its shareholders? Of course not, that's a very narrow view! It's like saying armies exist to kill people.
Do companies and markets provide a decentralized way to coordinate the efforts of large groups of people (choreography vs orchestration)? Yes, but what for?
Do companies and markets exist to maximize the economic output? Many would say yes, but the idea is wrong and will become more obviously wrong the more AI we inject into the economy.
Companies and markets exist to maximize the consumption! They exist so that more people consume more goods and services! The fact that these companies have to pay their workers is not an unwanted side effect, it's a feature! Companies exist to create and distribute goods and services to humans, and markets exist to ensure that each human gets a share that is sufficiently fair.
Both the industrial revolution and the transition to a service-based economy created millions, if not billions of new jobs, but is this an inevitable consequence of free markets? Will AI-fication of the modern economy do the same?
The correct answer is not "yes" or "no". It's "mu". If the economy reinvents itself again and people of the Global North find themselves new jobs, that's fine.
But if we suddenly start running out of jobs, accepting it as the inevitability of the market forces is the wrong way out. The right way out is retiring the market forces, not submitting to them. Creating shareholder value has always been the real side effect.
If you mean company in the sense of "for-profit corporation," then I think the answer is pretty straightforward: Companies exist to (1) encourage people to invest in business ventures by offering them limited liability; and (2) offer people a convenient, off-the-rack method of organizing a partnership.
If you mean company in the sense of "firm," I think it's also pretty straightforward: Companies exist because there are synergies in having a bunch of people working together on some joint project.
I'm not sure why you switched from just "companies" to "companies and markets," so I will focus on companies. Ok, suppose a company is faced with a choice between (1) maximizing shareholder value; and (2) maximizing consumption. For example, perhaps the company produces some luxury good or service and there is a clear choice between (1) selling limited amounts at a fat markup; and (2) selling large amounts with paper thin margins. Assuming the math clearly shows that choice (1) is far more profitable, I would expect the company to take that choice. (Obviously, things are rarely so clear-cut in the real world, but in a situation which really was that clear, a company CEO who chose (2) could expect to be sued by the investors.)
Of course, in theory society could step in and more or less redefine the purpose of companies. Seize the means of production, if you will. I think that's what you are basically arguing here, and I don't necessarily disagree with you. Logically it makes sense that once mankind's final invention takes place, there's no more need to encourage private capital investment. Perhaps This Time it's Different.
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