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Most critics of President Donald Trump view him as the ultimate threat to American democracy. But to Nobel Prize\u2013winning economist Daron Acemoglu, Trump is merely a fever, the result of an infection that\u2019s been brewing for years before he rode down the golden escalator to announce his presidency.<\/p>\n
The MIT economist has spent decades studying the origins of economic and political decay, specializing in how institutions foster inclusive growth\u2014or succumb to extractive systems. In the 2012 book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,<\/em> Acemoglu and coauthor James A. Robinson argue that nations prosper because of their political institutions. In 2024, Acemoglu won the Nobel Prize in economics, alongside Robinson and Simon Johnson, for demonstrating how political and economic institutions shape prosperity.<\/p>\n Acemoglu argued that while Trump\u2019s authoritarian tendencies are weakening the country\u2019s institutions, the president is not the root cause of the broader structural problems. He warned the country is headed down a grim path and outlined two shifts relative to AI development he sees as critical to avoiding deeper decline: cracking down on economic inequality and tempering job destruction. \u201cIf we go down this path of destroying jobs [and] creating more inequality, U.S. democracy is not going to survive,\u201d he told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n According to Acemoglu, AI-driven job displacement could be catastrophic and further entrench inequality. He notes the U.S. is currently seeing unprecedented levels of wealth inequality, and traditional policy has failed to close the gap. \u201cWe may need wealth taxes, because anything else we do today is still going to lead to this huge wealth gap that exists in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n The economist pointed to California\u2019s proposed \u201cbillionaire tax,\u201d a ballot initiative which would impose a one-time 5% wealth tax on all individuals in the state with a net worth of $1 billion or more. But even that doesn\u2019t go far enough, according to the economist. \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to tax the rich,\u201d he said. \u201cYou really need ways in which workers of all sorts of skills can take part in the growth process.\u201d<\/p>\n But AI proponents say Acemoglu\u2019s diagnosis of AI development is counterintuitive. Adam Thierer, senior fellow at the think tank R Street Institute and longtime advocate for technological innovation, believes AI will spawn opportunities, driving the economy into the future. \u201cThe way we get new and better jobs and opportunities is through technological improvements in society and our economy,\u201d Thierer told Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the Nobel laureate believes AI-related job losses have already arrived, with American companies tallying 1.2 million layoffs in 2025\u2014up 58% from the year prior\u2014with more than 50,000 directly related to AI.<\/p>\n Acemoglu said the focus on AI\u2019s development and the pursuit of artificial general intelligence\u2014technology that matches or exceeds human cognitive abilities\u2014is the wrong priority. \u201cI think there are ways in which this is a misguided agenda,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would have huge social consequences that are quite adverse.\u201d<\/p>\n Thierer, however, said technological innovation has always come hand-in-hand with economic disruption, a trend that\u2019s persisted for centuries. As a result, it\u2019s anticipated that some degree of job loss will accompany AI\u2019s arrival. \u201cWe would not want to be doing the same jobs we were doing a century ago,\u201d Thierer said. \u201cLuckily, we don\u2019t. For the most part, we\u2019ve moved on. We found better jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued that any regulation of America\u2019s AI industry could hamper its competition with China, and have long-term adverse effects for the U.S. economy. \u201cSo far, America remains in the lead, and we\u2019ve done some important things to make sure that we stay in the lead,\u201d Thierer said. \u201cBut we also have to be cognizant of the fact that we could make bad decisions that could take us out of that race or put us in second place.\u201d<\/p>\n But Acemoglu advocates for a \u201cpro-worker\u201d AI agenda, one that prioritizes human jobs while using AI as a tool for greater efficiency. \u201cThe best way to use something that\u2019s different from you is not to use it to replace yourself, but to use it in a complementary way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Nobel #laureate #author #Nations #Fail #warns #U.S #democracy #wont #survive #jobpocalypse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most critics of President Dona… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[4805,4784,486,2315,3162,5448,13703,2188,9344,9072,2405,1049,764,613,2307],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}One: The proliferation of economic inequality<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Two: The current rate of job destruction<\/strong><\/h2>\n