Beyond the Veil of Capital: Toward a “Post-Labor Economics” and a New Paradigm of Value Distribution in an Era of Full Automation

Abstract

The convergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and advanced robotics portends the comprehensive displacement of human labor across all productive activities. This prospect represents not merely a technological watershed but a fundamental crisis for the paradigm of economics itself. The theoretical edifice built on labor value, price theory, distribution mechanisms, and growth models faces potential obsolescence. This article proposes and systematically elaborates a theoretical framework of “Post-Labor Economics,” investigating how economic systems might achieve closed-loop operation when humans exit as producers. Tracing the historical evolution of the labor theory of value and synthesizing the intellectual lineage of technological displacement, the paper innovatively conceptualizes robots as “human-like producers” and constructs a “dual-circuit” model comprising the “Capital Internal Circuit” and the “Human External Circuit.” This model reveals the structural contradiction between infinite supply capacity and the evaporation of effective demand. Building on this foundation, the article reexamines fundamental transformations in price formation mechanisms, factor distribution logic, and growth constraints. Finally, it proposes a “Digital Sovereignty” distribution system that transcends traditional welfarism and reconstructs the philosophical foundations of “value.” The research concludes that the terminal scenario of comprehensive labor displacement will mark the end of the “Labor Economics” era and inaugurate a new civilizational paradigm centered on property rights reconfiguration, energy constraints, and the meaning of human existence.