On this May Day 2026, the traditional celebration of labor confronts a chilling economic reality: the “Capitalist Loop” is expiring. With global populations peaking and Goldman Sachs predicting 300 million jobs exposed to AI, the world is entering an era of “Degrowth.” As humanoid robots reach a price point of $20,000, undercutting human labor by 90%, a central paradox emerges: if machines do the work and owners take the profit, who earns the income to buy the output? From Japan’s “profit concentration” model to the rise of the State as Buyer of Last Resort, we explore the five remaining sources of global demand and the uncomfortable necessity of rewriting the rules on taxes, ownership, and UBI.
