"Where as today the global economy is stagnating."

The global economy is in good shape.

Western economies are stagnating - but there are 5 billion people who were not even on the economic radar just 50 years ago. They were earning basically 'nothing'.

But now they are earning 'something' and it's growing fast.

There are more than 40 countries with growth over 5% GDP growth in 2015. [1]

There are 5 billion people who need: electricity, clothes, cars, tv, entertainment, sports, medicine etc. etc..

So, no. As prices fall, and globalization expands - all those products and services become accessible to these countries.

And what happens when they get reliable electricity? Governance? Consistent internet access? Their productivity goes up and they can afford to buy more.

Viewed from a 'modern world perspective' - I would be concerned, we are going to have to 'find new jobs' for a lot of people - but from a global perspective, the picture is mostly positive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_...

The top 15 economies in the world are 75% of the world economy. Most are in the West. The growth of the other 25% is not going to help much if these 15 combined do not grow more than the efficiency gains from automation.

"The top 15 economies in the world are 75% of the world economy. Most are in the West. The growth of the other 25% is not going to help much if these 15 combined do not grow more than the efficiency gains from automation."

But they are not most of the population.

We're talking about employment here.

5 billion people 'lives improving dramatically' vs. 2 billion people 'lives improving slowly' is a good equation.

That those 2 billion are 'already wealthy' and a small uptick in their wealth increases the global GDP a little bit more is and odd way of looking at it.

By that measure, we should be focusing on Gates and Zuckerbergs wealth more than anything else!

The 'global GDP' is not the point here.

You are combining 2 seperate issues automation is going to help in many ways. But there are 2 main kinds of resoure that people use to earn income 1.money 2.labour(mental or physical) More than 99% of the people earn income with the latter so automation will take away the only source of income for most of the world's population. I am personally pro automation as it will solve many of the problems humanity faces today but at the same time see that the way the current capilistic economies work automation is also going to cause huge problems for many countries and the world should be preparing for it.

This is the real problem. While it may be good ecologically for population growth to slow and then reverse, it will lead to what I've long called "planet Japan."

Life in Japan is pretty nice though. You don't need economic growth if the population isn't growing.

What do you mean by "Planet Japan"?

Japan has second oldest population world-wide with 27.28% over 65, after Monaco, which doesn't really count (retirement home for rich people).

http://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a01001/

... and economic stagnation. It's basically a permanent liquidity trap.

If you adjust GDP for population growth Japan is actually doing quite well. The fact that it has a growing economy and a shrinking population shows that productivity is going up. Countries like the US have historically had high population growth which is reflected in higher GDP growth.

No issue there. The problem is that this completely breaks all modern finance, which is built on the assumption of permanent macroeconomic growth to deliver returns and permanent inflation to continuously re-price debt.