📢 Artificial Intelligency and Expiring Money
By (c) Natarajan Subramanian, Sydney
Introduction: The End of Work, the End of Money?
For two centuries, societies have revolved around the same story: work hard, earn wages, spend wisely, and save for tomorrow. Money was not only a medium of exchange — it was the reward for labour, the ticket to survival, and the symbol of value.
But in 2025, this story is unraveling. Artificial intelligence is dismantling the old link between labour and money, just as financial crises and pandemics have already shaken the foundations of markets and growth. The cracks are visible: abundant money printing does not collapse economies; consumption can continue without jobs; and digital currencies appear out of nowhere.
If money as we know it collapses, what then?
1. The Invention of Markets
Markets are not “natural.” They are inventions — clever mechanisms designed to match supply and demand. To keep the machine running, economists told us growth was essential, and marketing told us our wants were unlimited. Together, this created an endless treadmill: produce more, consume more, borrow more.
But the machine comes at a cost: environmental strain, resource depletion, and a culture of perpetual dissatisfaction.
2. When Growth Collapsed, Money Survived
The 2008 financial crisis was a rehearsal. The US poured trillions into saving banks. Australia under Kevin Rudd handed cash directly to families — $900 three times — and told them to spend. Two opposite strategies, both worked. The result? The “purity” of market theory was buried. Money became a tool, not a law of nature.
The lesson: money can be created, distributed, and re-purposed at will.
3. COVID: Work Not Required
The pandemic pushed the experiment further. Millions stayed home. Governments printed trillions. Jobs evaporated — but consumption continued. The economy did not collapse. For the first time, people experienced life without labour as survival.
The idea that “you must work to live” lost credibility.
4. Zero Interest and Crypto Illusions
Economists once said money had to have a “time value.” Savings grew through interest; capital expanded through investment. Yet for much of the past decade, interest rates hovered near zero. Money no longer grew — but economies still ticked along.
At the same time, cryptocurrencies showed that money could be generated “on the fly,” detached from states, banks, and production. Suddenly, the fiction of scarcity became visible.
5. AI: The Final Blow to Labour
Now comes artificial intelligence. Studies suggest 50–80% of jobs can be automated. From truck driving to law, journalism to medicine, AI performs tasks faster, cheaper, and often better. Efficiency, once celebrated, now threatens to erase work itself.
We spent centuries refining human productivity. AI ends the game by making human labour redundant. If labour is no longer the source of money, then money itself must be redefined.
6. The Problem of Unlimited Wants
Here lies the paradox: money can be printed, distributed, or coded. But what about the planet? Our wants are unlimited, but the Earth’s resources are not. Without limits, abundant money risks fueling unsustainable consumption.
That is why the future must be about redesigning money itself.
7. Expiring Money: A Radical Proposal
Imagine money that disappears if you don’t use it. Monthly or yearly “abundance credits” deposited directly to every citizen. This expiring money would:
- Prevent hoarding and speculation.
- Guide demand away from accumulation and towards circulation.
- Guarantee everyone a fair share of resources.
Instead of money as a store of value, it becomes a flow of life support. Everyone receives it, everyone uses it, no one can stockpile it, that is expiring money in very short term.
8. Universal Abundance, Not Universal Basic Income
Much has been written about Universal Basic Income (UBI). But UBI still imagines money as permanent, tied to markets. A better model is Universal Abundance Share — credits refreshed every month, expiring like food stamps for a new age.
This changes behaviour. If your credits vanish at month’s end, you share, collaborate, and innovate. Scarcity psychology is replaced by abundance psychology.
9. Ecological Calibration
To make it sustainable, the supply of expiring money can be calibrated to ecological limits. If carbon emissions rise too high, the system issues fewer credits. If renewable energy expands, credits increase. In this model, nature itself becomes the central bank.
Growth is no longer measured in GDP but in flourishing life within planetary boundaries.
10. Beyond Money, Beyond Growth
We are at a threshold.
- AI dismantles the labour–money nexus.
- Financial crises have already undermined market purity.
- COVID proved survival no longer requires work-wages.
- Environmental limits demand we rethink consumption.
The answer is not to defend old systems but to imagine new ones. Expiring money, universal abundance, and ecological calibration offer a way forward.
In such a world:
- Money is no longer a store of value but a flow of shared resources.
- Work is no longer survival but self-expression.
- Growth is no longer GDP but flourishing life.
This is not the end of money. It is the beginning of a new era — one where humanity transcends scarcity, embraces abundance, and redefines value itself.
Final Word
Publishing in journals may take months or years. But the urgency is now. AI is not waiting for academic referees. The debate belongs in the open — in newspapers, communities, workplaces, and living rooms.
The collapse of money as we know it is not a tragedy. It is an opportunity. We can build a society where everyone shares in abundance, where the economy serves life, not the other way around.