The Long Council
Who was selected, and why
If AI takes the jobs, who’s left to buy? What stops the collapse and who must act?
The central tension
Whether the market will spontaneously generate sufficient new employment and purchasing power, or whether state intervention is necessary to maintain aggregate demand as AI transforms production.
Selected members
John Maynard Keynes
Will argue: Government must act as employer and purchaser of last resort; markets cannot self-correct when facing genuine uncertainty about technological disruption
His framework addresses aggregate demand failure when private investment and consumption collapse simultaneously · General Theory Chapter 24 on technological unemployment as a "temporary phase of maladjustment"; uncertainty framework when probabilities cannot be assigned to AI's employment effects
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Will argue: The state must create purchasing power directly through employment programs when private markets fail to generate sufficient demand
Documented experience managing economic transformation when existing employment structures collapsed (Great Depression) · New Deal job creation programs, Social Security as automatic stabilizer; scaling these frameworks to AI-driven displacement
Amartya Sen
Will argue: Focus on ensuring people retain access to goods and services regardless of employment status; technological progress must expand human capabilities, not contract them
His capability approach and entitlement framework address what happens when people's legitimate claims on economic resources are severed · famine analysis shows breakdown of entitlement, not scarcity, causes crisis; development framework emphasizes human capability over GDP growth
Albert Hirschman
Will argue: The disruption will force creative institutional adaptations we cannot anticipate; gradual adjustment preferable to comprehensive planning for unknowable future
His framework on unbalanced growth and creative adaptation applies to technological transitions that create productive tensions · hiding hand principle suggests we underestimate adaptive capacity; exit/voice dynamics when employment relationships break down
Milton Friedman
Will argue: Universal basic income through negative income tax preserves market signals while maintaining purchasing power; markets will adapt if price mechanisms remain intact
His negative income tax proposal and framework for market adaptation to technological change · advocacy for direct cash transfers over bureaucratic welfare; position that technological progress historically creates more jobs than it destroys
Considered but not selected
*Deng Xiaoping** — His development model assumes labor-intensive industrialization, not applicable to post-employment scenarios
*Margaret Thatcher** — Her framework prioritized supply-side structural adjustment, not demand management during technological transition
*Elinor Ostrom** — Commons framework not directly applicable to employment and consumption as economic relationships rather than shared resources