University of New Hampshire
McNair Scholar, 2024
Major: Economics, Philosophy and Justice Studies
Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Smith
Research Title: Can Capitalism Survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Abstract:
The labor market is facing a crisis unlike anything we have ever seen before. The demand for labor is incredibly low, causing low wages and job insecurity for many. Unemployment statistics do not truly capture the actual number of unemployed people as they do not count discouraged workers, workers underemployed in terms of time, and workers underemployed in terms of wage-earning potential. The rise of automation and Artificial Intelligence is blamed for this low labor demand, but this is not the full story. Deindustrialization and economic stagnation have had a massive role in the creation of rough labor market conditions. However, ultimately, the cause is the Capitalist economic system functioning the way it is supposed to. In this research, I aim to analyze modern Capitalism through a Marxist perspective to explore how capitalism's tendency towards over-saturation of markets and stagnation caused this low demand for labor. Then, I explore how Artificial Intelligence and automation can be used to move us toward a non-capitalistic economic system that is designed to take advantage of the abundance of commodities we are now facing due to our productive capacity.
