If decreases in costs arise from decreased incomes to people then I might wonder about some of the political economy aspects here. I could see a case where income distributions become further skewed and particularly skewed towards those who are capturing the economic rents from land’s scarcity perhaps driving support for something like the Georgist Land Value Tax regime as a necessary solution to the social inequalities. That would take pretty much all the gains from the pure land appreciation.
I might also question the claim about land scarcity. Square footage is often a limiting factor but land use intensity is probably more important. AI could perhaps identify large improvements in technology that allows huge increases in output from the same area of land. Think things like has occurred in cities—look up, not across. AI might add to that type of solution to the limited area of a plot of land. Vertical building is about shifting from area to volume. AI might be able to provide ways to multi-task the same space.
Similar innovations are occurring in farming (vertical, underground) and I would think that AI might find additional productivity improvements in production of food.
Things like a functional metaverse where we can go to the virtual office and it be indistinguishable from what we do today would also have an impact on both the need for existing space and likely reduce the existing demand for existing space.
If decreases in costs arise from decreased incomes to people then I might wonder about some of the political economy aspects here. I could see a case where income distributions become further skewed and particularly skewed towards those who are capturing the economic rents from land’s scarcity perhaps driving support for something like the Georgist Land Value Tax regime as a necessary solution to the social inequalities. That would take pretty much all the gains from the pure land appreciation.
I might also question the claim about land scarcity. Square footage is often a limiting factor but land use intensity is probably more important. AI could perhaps identify large improvements in technology that allows huge increases in output from the same area of land. Think things like has occurred in cities—look up, not across. AI might add to that type of solution to the limited area of a plot of land. Vertical building is about shifting from area to volume. AI might be able to provide ways to multi-task the same space.
Similar innovations are occurring in farming (vertical, underground) and I would think that AI might find additional productivity improvements in production of food.
Things like a functional metaverse where we can go to the virtual office and it be indistinguishable from what we do today would also have an impact on both the need for existing space and likely reduce the existing demand for existing space.