Australia ran the experiment on AI economics
An Australian perspective on a U.S. economist's argument explores how AI may reshape economies by shifting value toward relational work, using the resilience of local cafés in Sydney as a case study. The piece examines why automated coffee systems have not displaced human baristas, emphasizing the economic value of personal relationships in service industries. Drawing on historical trends in agriculture and manufacturing, the essay suggests AI's impact may follow a similar pattern of shifting labor rather than causing economic collapse.
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Where the Jobs GoAn Australian reading of an American economist's argument about AI, the relational sector, and what gets left behindDr David BellApr 30, 2026ShareThis is a side essay from Lady Lovelace’s Objection*, a serialised history of computing I am writing here. New chapters and essays land on Tuesdays.*SubscribeIn a café in Surry Hills, Sydney, on a Tuesday morning in April 2026, a barista in her late twenties is making the seventeenth flat white of the morning. She has been on shift since six. The customer is a regular. She started his order before he was through the door. The flat white costs five dollars and fifty cents. The bean is a single-origin Ethiopian roasted three days ago by a small operation in Marrickville. The cup is ceramic.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Substack.
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