…if all labour were to be replaced by autonomous robots. Prices would drop to zero since companies aren’t making or losing money anymore, and money would become worthless.
…if all labour were to be replaced by autonomous robots. Prices would drop to zero since companies aren’t making or losing money anymore, and money would become worthless.
Labor might become worthless, but money would still have value derived from ownership of capital (factories and raw materials). A tiny capitalist class would still produce and sell to each other, while the rest of humanity would be left with literally nothing to work with.
How are companies buying raw materials if there are no consumers to subsidize that?
There are still (some) consumers—other capitalists.
It still doesn’t seem plausible to me because the idea of momey is only sexy in so far as you can trade it for other stuff. There’s not much value in money that can only be used to purchase land/raw materials. It’s just a contract at that point.
If the bourgeois class is adamant about keeping commodification, they probably wouldn’t let things get to this stage in the first place. Governments would step in to regulate.
On the contrary—with automation converting raw materials to finished goods essentially for free, raw materials would be worth more than ever.