Image Description: A split illustration divided by a jagged lightning bolt. Left side: a solarpunk neighborhood in warm golden light. A young woman sits relaxed on a wooden bench reading a book, unhurried. Behind her: organic curved buildings with living green roofs, wildflowers, solar panels and wind turbines integrated into the architecture. A cargo bike stands nearby, people chat casually in a community garden. Watercolor style, warm greens, terracotta and amber tones. Context: Right side: a cold, grey urban plaza surrounded by sterile glass towers. Three figures in hoodies hunch over laptops, isolated and tense. Delivery drones fly overhead. No human connection, no greenery. Cool blue-grey watercolor tones. The jagged split between the two worlds represents the choice humanity faces: a future shaped by redistribution and technological progress as a collective gain — or a ghost economy where AI creates growth that never reaches people. The accompanying paper argues for a global machine tax financing an Unconditional Basic Income as the systemic bridge between these two worlds. Ghost GDP: Growth Without Prosperity? Through AI? FOSSEA³M Research Group. CC SA BY 4.0.

Ghost GDP: AI creates growth that never reaches people. Machines produce, but don't consume, don't pay taxes, don't stabilize societies. Our new working paper argues for a machine tax + UBI as systemic response. More see ALT text.

y.lab.nrw/ghost-gdp

#GhostGDP #OpenResearch #MachineTax #UBI #AI

Image Description: A ghost-like human figure composed of fragmented dollar bills and data fragments stands in an empty office, dissolving into the air. The left half of the image is rendered in warm copper and terracotta tones with candlestick charts on the wall; the right half shifts to cool blue-grey with the same motif. The floor shows a geometric chessboard pattern. Two empty desks and office chairs flank the figure — the office is abandoned. Context: This image illustrates the concept of "Ghost GDP": economic output that appears in national accounts but never circulates through real people. The accompanying paper analyzes how AI simultaneously displaces physical and cognitive labor, breaks the consumption cycle, and produces statistical growth without purchasing power. It connects this structural rupture to the post-growth debate and argues — through the perspectives of Trump, Xi, Merz, BRICS, and institutional investors — that a global machine tax financing an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is the only systemic response. The window for action is still open. But it is closing. Ghost GDP: Growth Without Prosperity? Through AI? FOSSEA³M Research Group. CC SA BY 4.0.

AI builds Ghost GDP: growth that never reaches people. Machines don't pay taxes, don't consume, don't stabilize markets. New paper: who profits, who pays, and why a machine tax and UBI could be the solution:

y.lab.nrw/ghost-gdp

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#GhostGDP #MachineTax #UBI #AIEconomy #GenAI #AI #Agentic