Fully Automated Luxury Communism Isn’t Our Future

A new fantasy from the far left holds that far from taking our jobs, automation could liberate us. But it’s a false hope

Illustration: Minet Kim

In Aaron Bastani’s new book Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto, the British author argues that advances in technology have made visible a “political map” pointing to the ideas of Karl Marx and communism, and could lead to a transformation in wealth distribution and quality of life for everyone on Earth. Automation, according to Bastani, is the social revolution that Marx had long predicted.

“This is not a book about the future but about a present that goes unacknowledged,” Bastani begins. “The outline of a world immeasurably better than our own, more equal, prosperous, and creative, is there to see if only we dare to look. But insight alone is not enough. We must have the courage — for that is what is required — to argue, persuade, and build. There is a world to win.”

Immense wealth will be generated, he explains, by the “extreme supply” of valuable resources generated by new space industries such as asteroid mining. Advancements in robotics and automation on Earth will, in turn, mean that humans are largely liberated from manual work. And the new-found wealth from this space exploration and the liberation of our time will enable us all to live in luxury and abundance. All this, I’ll remind you, in a book categorized as non-fiction.

“It turns out that Marx’s early suspicion that the countries set to lead the revolution would be those at the cutting edge of capitalist modernity was right. Only now we know that means technology as much as politics.”

During this transition, capitalism will collapse because both automation and the “extreme supply” of resources will make all goods and services permanently cheaper. Once that happens, Bastani argues, this new system of Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC) will be overseen by an elected, populist, left-wing government.

Talking to OneZero, Bastani explained that Marx saw automation as central to his communist vision…