As automation and AI reshape the labor market, humanity faces a defining question: will the decline of traditional work open a new era of leisure and creativity—or usher in instability and inequality? In this episode of Five-Minute Debate, host Robert Smith moderates a fast-paced exchange between two scholars with opposing views. Drawing on insights from thinkers like Rutger Bregman, Peter Frase, Daron Acemoglu, Robert Gordon, and Mariana Mazzucato, the debate explores whether post-labor economics is a dream worth chasing—or a gamble too risky to take.
