Ironically, I found out 6 months into writing that this has happened before in 1920s & 1930s in the USA. One path was an energy economic system of hyper-productivity using technology of their time and another was money printing & debt (rent-seeking). Proposals gained national attention but failed, they weren’t designed to human neuroscience & human emotion. World took path of money printing & debt which lead to World War 2. Shall we prevent World War 3 my friend? We have better technology & knowledge this time, so not as hard. The secret solution is neuroscience & human brain. This essay is a section from my free public domain book that is on internet archive: https://archive.org/details/engineering-world-wealth-and-happiness-post-ai-economy-and-preventing-collapse
Technocrat proposal in image:
Income of $20,000 is $500,000 in 2026 dollars. Our book estimated $8 billion annually globally per capita at 8 billion population. (Earth economy without space economy). Their energy technology was limited, didn’t even have direct PV solar power nor nuclear power at that time.
Context of the situation in 1920s and 1930s
● Technology of the day was Electricity. Factories were switching to be powered by electricity instead of steam. This skyrocketed output. (Like Ai is promising today, skyrocket output & productivity)
● Working class fear of being worthless and replaced by Machine. Same as today. Check quotes below. This fear affect brain wiring and creates paranoia too.
● Capital Owning Class: afraid of the general public working class, that revolution will happen. They built compounds with private armies and farms to be able to survive in a revolution. Similar to billionaire bunkers today, check Table #1 comparison below. What is more interesting, compare the neuroscience that leads to this prepping behavior and you will see that it has not changed from 100 years ago. We are still same human with same brain. ○ When an individual or a small group amasses extreme wealth and power, their brains undergo profound neurobiological changes. When that neurochemistry interacts with a perceived threat from a massive working class, it triggers a predictable cascade of neurological reactions.
● Credit Bubble and crash. ○ in 1920s everyone was excited about electric as technology. Financial industry was issuing a lot of debt to fund the electricity infrastructure. (like debt to fund Ai data centers today).
○ Consumer debt and credit was easy to get. People used that to buy cars and manufactured products. Also they used it to buy stocks on margin, so buying stock with debt.
○ 1929 is the famous stock market crash and the credit bubble crash. This lead to the Great Depression.
○ Financialization: they might have not used that word, but it happened in this era 1877–1939. Small group of industrialist had access to loans/credit to build out these factories that provide great productivity. Not any citizen could access this tech/tool to use for their own private work or small business. The increase output was mostly used to service interest payments rather than crashing price of products to almost 0 to make regular people feel wealthy.
Quotes: The 1920s & 1930s: The Fear of “Technological Unemployment”
“Technological Unemployment” was coined during this era (popularized by economist John Maynard Keynes) 1930 (Anxiety over the automated factory): As electrical grids allowed factories to run 24/7 with fewer workers, labor publications openly worried about a jobless future. An editorial in the Labor Age journal noted:
“The electric eye and the automated switchboard are taking the place of human brains andmuscles. We are producing more wealth than ever before, yet millions of our people arewalking the streets looking for bread because a machine took their job.”
1933 (During President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inaugural Era): Even the government acknowledged that technology was outstripping the economy’s ability to create jobs. In a 1933 address, Technocracy movement leaders — who gained massive popularity during the Depression — argued:
“The displacement of human labor by electrical energy and modern machinery is permanent. We have reached a point where the price system can no longer distribute the wealth that our machines produce.”
1933 — Removing Gold Standard and printing Money in USA leads to a Global Economic cascade resulting in rise of Hitler and Later World War 2
● The “Beggar-Thy-Neighbor” Devaluation: When FDR took the U.S. off gold and artificially raised the price of gold from $20.67 to $35 an ounce, he deliberately devalued the U.S. dollar by roughly 40%. This made American exports incredibly cheap and foreign imports expensive, essentially “exporting” American deflation to Europe. [1, 2, 3]
● The Collapse of the “Gold Bloc” Democracies: Countries like France, Belgium, and the Netherlands stubbornly stayed on the gold standard to maintain financial credibility. FDR’s devalued dollar priced these European democracies out of global trade, triggering severe economic recessions, mass unemployment, and political instability within the very nations meant to contain Germany. [1, 2, 3]
● Shattering Global Cooperation (The 1933 London Economic Conference): In June 1933, world leaders met to stabilize global currencies and revive international trade. FDR issued his famous “Bombshell Message,” refusing any currency stabilization because he wanted to keep printing money to inflate U.S. prices. This destroyed the conference, ended global economic cooperation, and forced European nations into desperate, nationalist survival modes. [1]
● A Financial Windfall for the Nazi Regime: As the U.S. and other nations abandoned gold, the global price of gold skyrocketed. Germany had been completely bankrupt. However, the Reichsbank, under Nazi direction, aggressively accumulated, revalued, and later plundered gold across Europe. The artificially inflated value of gold became the secret fuel used to fund Hitler’s massive, illegal military rearmament program. [1, 2, 3]
● Justifying Nazi Autarky (Self-Sufficiency): Hitler used the collapse of internationalvtrade — accelerated by FDR’s isolationist monetary policy — as propaganda proof that the global capitalist system was broken and run by a hostile “international conspiracy.” This gave the Nazis the perfect political cover to permanently sever Germany from global markets and build a closed, hyper-militarized war economy (Autarky).
So rent-seeking & zero-sum actions (easy fix, easy money, but harms others) lead to more rent-seeking & zero-sum actions by other players.
Alternative Economic Solutions Proposed at the Time There were 2 different people that proposed an energy currency system.
● 1) Henry Ford in 1921
● 2) Technocratic Movement 1929 to 1932
Henry Ford’s Energy Dollar Proposal (1921)
The Proposal: Henry Ford proposed replacing the gold standard with an “Energy Currency.” Money would be backed by, issued based on, and convertible into a specific unit of physical energy — such as one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity — generated by public infrastructure projects like the Muscle Shoals dam (later part of the Tennessee Valley Authority).
● Why He Wanted It: ○ To break the monopoly of Wall Street: Ford deeply distrusted international bankers and investment syndicates (like J.P. Morgan) who charged high interest rates on credit. ○ To align wealth with actual value: He believed gold was a useless metal manipulated by elites, whereas energy was a tangible, productive asset that genuinely improved human life.
● Why It Failed / Wasn’t Accepted: Fierce opposition from the financial elite: Wall Street and major banks aggressively lobbied Congress against it, as an energy-backed currency would strip them of their power to control credit and interest rates. ○ Lack of economic infrastructure: The technology did not exist to accurately measure, stabilize, and audit a fluctuating, decentralized national energy supply as a day-to-day medium of exchange.
● Personal Note: Unfortunately he let his anti-semitism taint his proposal. He accused the Jews of causing problems in world like wars. But in reality it is the interest-debt system itself that causes all these problems as it opens door for rent-seeking and zero-sum actions like we have shown in this book. Easy money and easy solutions are irresistible, a ruler will end up taking debt to fund war or inflate currency to fix the economy quickly. Similar rent-seeking by speculating on gold prices is to be expected when you allow it including zero-sum actions where some players might use unfair tactics to win easy profits from gold speculation but not all do that.
The Technocracy Movement (1930s)
● The Proposal: Led by Howard Scott, the movement proposed replacing politicians and the traditional “price system” (capitalism) with a government run by scientists and engineers. They advocated for an economy managed by “Energy Certificates” (or “Ergs”) where production and consumption were balanced scientifically based on the total thermodynamic energy budget of North America.
● Why They Wanted It: ○ To cure the Great Depression: They argued that the 1930s crisis was caused by technology making human labor obsolete (technological unemployment), meaning capitalism could no longer distribute wealth fairly. ○ To eliminate waste: They believed an energy-accounting system would eliminate corporate greed, inflation, poverty, and unemployment by focusing on maximum physical efficiency rather than profits.
● Why It Failed / Wasn’t Accepted: ○ Howard Scott’s credentials collapsed: In early 1933, a highly publicized address at Columbia University went poorly, and subsequent investigations exposed that leader Howard Scott had vastly falsified his engineering credentials, destroying the movement’s intellectual credibility. ○ Fear of totalitarianism: Critics and ordinary citizens viewed the idea of being managed purely by unelected experts as anti-democratic and authoritarian dictatorship. ○ The New Deal took over: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies successfully absorbed and implemented some of their core ideas (like massive public engineering works) while retaining American democracy and the capitalist system.
● Personal Note: Now we can have de-centralized democratic version of this as shown by the book thanks to Ai. Every citizen and entrepreneur has full agency on their life and economic decisions. Free markets driven energy economy. ○ We have better energy generation technology, they were relying on hydro power to generate electricity mainly. They did not have direct solar power at commercial level yet till 1950s.
Technocracy was an absolute national obsession, Between August1932 and January 1933
United States was gripped by “Technocracy Mania.” The country was at the absolute rock bottom of the Great Depression, and traditional capitalism seemed completely broken. People were desperate for a solution that didn’t involve Soviet communism or European fascism
The Corporate & Business Elite’s Fascination
Surprisingly, many captains of industry — the very people the Technocrats wanted to replace — were initially fascinated by the movement.
The Columbia Endorsement: Because Howard Scott had partnered with Professor Walter Rautenstrauch to base his operations out of the prestigious Columbia University School of Engineering, business leaders assumed the movement was a highly reputable, data-driven think tank. [1, 3] ● Corporate Curiosity: Industrialists and bankers were curious to see if these engineers had unlocked a scientific method to restart the economy. Magnates like Henry Luce (the founder of Time and Fortune magazines) gave the movement massive, serious coverage. [1] ● The Ultimate VIP Guest List: The excitement was so intense that the January 13, 1933 banquet at the Hotel Pierre wasn’t just a random speech; it was an elite networking event organized specifically for Scott to present his ideas to 400 of the nation’s top capitalists, bankers, and industrialists — including the head of the First National Bank and the chairman of RCA. [1, 2, 3]
The Public’s Utopia Mania
For ordinary, starving citizens, Technocracy felt like a breath of fresh air. [1] ● A Media Frenzy: Magazines like Harper’s and The Atlantic sold out of issues featuring Technocracy articles. Bookstores could not keep pamphlets on the shelves. [1] ● The “American” Alternative: The public loved it because it felt uniquely American. It wasn’t based on European political theory like Marxism; it was based on efficiency, machinery, and science — things Americans already deeply respected. [1, 2, 3] ● The Promise of Abundance: Scott’s group promised a utopian future where automation would allow a 4-hour workday, a 4-day workweek, and retirement at age 45, all while providing a high standard of living for every citizen. To a population standing in breadlines, this sounded like magic
**What if USA took this engineering economy route from 1932?**If the US managed the economy like how Ford and the Technocrat movement suggested. How would that have changed US History?
The Silicon Valley of the 1950s (Decades Early) By focusing the entire national apparatus on engineering, scientific R&D would have exploded.
● Accelerated Computing: To manage a real-time energy economy for millions of people, the Technocratic state would have poured unprecedented resources into early computing, data networking, and cybernetics.
● The Internet in the 1950s: The U.S. would have likely achieved widespread automation, mainframe computing, and nationwide data-tracking networks decades ahead of actual history. A Hyper-Automated, 16-Hour Work Week ● The “Four-Four” Schedule: As Howard Scott planned, the nation would have adopted a 4-hour workday, 4 days a week, with workers receiving 78 days of continuous vacation a year.
● Retirement at 45: The massive influx of electrical automation and continuous assembly lines would have been used to reduce human labor rather than increase corporate margins. The U.S. would have experienced a golden era of leisure, science, and public infrastructure
Conclusion
Today we are in the same situation. BUT we have a better tool to make this work this time. It is our neuroscience knowledge, the physics of the brain. We know each human in the world has this same brain that operates us. It is the key to overcoming our fears to make it work. Our brain wiring is altered when we are in worker class or in the elite class as shown by neuroscience and it leads to these fears of the “other” class. This paranoia that leads to harmful actions towards the other. This de-humanization and violence. Even though we are the same human at the core. Now we have neuroscience tools as shown in “human science” section to rapidly learn new behaviors, to re-wire our own brain to be mentally healthy and remove our fears of the other and remove our class trauma. All become our ideal best self, ideal citizens. Super hero level people in all ways.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, during his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933. As a nation and economy, we have the technology to pivot to a new energy based system to fix the issues that come from interest-debt and the typical cycles of debt-driven civilizations that always end in war, conflict, and collapse. Added bonus we can fix climate collapse, since we aren’t making fast enough progress with our current methods if we are fully honest.
What is the alternative? Ai will de-value all intangible assets (90% of assets in modern dollar economy). Even the tangible assets aren’t as valuable as currently valued by fiat currency, since abundant crust material & energy means nothing is scarce. So the majority will go bankrupt (nations, companies, people) which is enough for global civil unrest and world war because the bankruptcies will be random and unpredictable not a linear and planned transition.
I came across a song that quoted Charlie Chaplin’s speech from 1940 about state of the world. It encapsulates our choice today of recognizing & unlocking the earth’s abundance or goose-step into war and misery, using our new machinery (Ai & Robots).
Charlie Chaplin’s speech 1940 — “In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…” ● Song: Anitek — Cynical Beings — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkWgsPTLzg
This essay is a section from a public domain book I released: Engineering World Wealth And Happiness by John Matters
is a work about artificial intelligence, technological change, abundance, and the possible future of society. For better or for worse.
100 years ago, electricity debt bubble caused world war 2. Today Ai debt bubble can do the same. We can avoid that! It took 10 Months of work to create this book. I am the anonymous author, John Matters.
Topics covered:
– How to transform economy to Handle Ai and AGI without mass unemployment and debt collapse
– Build economic system based on physics and neuroscience. Map true human wants, needs, and desires. Energy currency
– New source of truth for society and institutions that is not corruptible
– Why debt driven civilizations collapse. Why they have social decay
– How to change all zero sum games and rent-seeking in society to positive-sum and productive.
– The everything bubble collapse and how to prevent it (includes Ai bubble)
– Civilization Upgrade Guide