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The Price of Tomorrow - Jeff Booth

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The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future (Jeff Booth, 2020) is the most concentrated contemporary statement of the technological-deflation thesis: that technological progress is structurally deflationary, that central-bank attempts to suppress this deflation through monetary expansion are structurally unsustainable, and that a monetary system aligned with technological deflation (rather than against it) is the natural answer. The book is short (~150 pages), polemically clear, and analytically uncomplicated by Austrian-economics technicalities. Booth, a Canadian technology entrepreneur, makes the case from a practitioner's vantage point rather than from an economist's — and that vantage point is part of what makes the book persuasive to readers who would not engage Ammous's Austrian framework. For Booth's broader career, intellectual style, and corpus, see Jeff Booth.

Why this source matters

The Price of Tomorrow is the canonical statement of the technological-deflation framework within the contemporary Bitcoin canon. Where other works approach Bitcoin from monetary theory (Ammous), institutional architecture (Bhatia), empirical macro (Alden), or civilizational analysis (Farrington and Meyers), Booth approaches it from the lived reality of running a technology business in a world of accelerating productivity gains.

The book’s specific contributions:

  • The technological-deflation framing. Technology relentlessly drives prices down; this is observable empirically across every technology-touched sector. The framework’s analytical implication: an honest monetary system would measure this deflation rather than suppress it.
  • The case against central-bank deflation suppression. Central banks fight technological deflation with monetary expansion. The resulting asset-price inflation and labor-income stagnation is a consequence of the policy choice rather than a natural economic phenomenon.
  • The Bitcoin-as-natural-money framing. A monetary system with fixed supply allows prices to fall as productivity rises, capturing technological gains for everyone rather than for the asset-owning class. This is the constructive case Booth makes for Bitcoin.

The book is load-bearing for the framework underneath Hard money vs fiat money and Critiques of Keynesian economics, and it provides the most accessible entry point into the Bitcoin case for technology-oriented readers.

Bibliographic details

  • Title: The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future
  • Author: Jeff Booth (see Jeff Booth)
  • First published: January 2020
  • Publisher: Self-published, with print-on-demand distribution; later editions through standard publisher channels
  • Length: ~150 pages — among the shortest books in the contemporary Bitcoin canon
  • Format: Trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook (narrated by Booth himself)

Edition and translation notes

  • The 2020 first edition is the canonical text. Later editions have not substantially revised the argument.
  • Booth’s own audiobook narration is widely recommended; his measured, conversational style works well in audio
  • Translations exist for major markets; the book’s relative brevity makes translation work straightforward

Structure of the work

The book is deliberately short and accessible. Booth structures the argument as a clear sequence rather than as a multi-part academic treatise.

Opening — The reality of technological deflation

The early chapters establish the empirical reality of technological deflation. Booth draws on his experience running BuildDirect, a technology-enabled building-materials marketplace, to document how technology systematically drives down prices in every sector it touches. The chapters cover:

  • The price trajectories of consumer technology (computing, communications, displays, batteries)
  • The productivity trajectories of technology-enabled production
  • The labor-market displacement that accompanies technological substitution
  • The asset-price trajectories that diverge from consumer-price trajectories

The empirical framing is deliberately practitioner-grounded. Booth writes as someone who has watched technological deflation unfold in his own business rather than as an economist theorizing about it.

Middle — The monetary response

The middle chapters engage central-bank policy. The argument:

  • Central banks target a positive inflation rate (typically 2%) as policy
  • Technological progress is structurally deflationary, pushing prices down
  • To maintain positive inflation against deflationary technology, central banks must engineer monetary expansion at scale
  • The expansion does not flow uniformly to consumer prices; it flows disproportionately to asset prices
  • The result is sustained asset-price inflation alongside consumer-price stability — exactly the pattern observed in the post-2008 period

This is Booth’s most analytically distinctive contribution. The framing identifies the policy choice underneath the apparent economic pattern: stagnant labor income alongside soaring asset values is not a market outcome, it is the consequence of choosing to suppress technological deflation.

Closing — The Bitcoin case

The closing chapters make the constructive case. Booth argues that Bitcoin — as a monetary system with fixed supply — is the natural answer to a world of accelerating technological deflation:

  • A fixed-supply money lets prices fall as productivity rises
  • The technological gains are captured broadly through purchasing-power increases rather than narrowly through asset-price increases
  • The labor-vs-capital imbalance produced by the deflation-suppression policy is dissolved
  • The system aligns money with the underlying economic reality rather than against it

The closing case is deliberately constructive rather than purely critical. Booth’s framing emphasizes the abundance available if monetary architecture aligns with technological reality, rather than the loss suffered under the existing architecture.

Core arguments and distinctive contributions

The technological-deflation framework

The book’s central contribution. The framework’s analytical moves:

  • Technology is structurally deflationary — productivity gains drive prices down across every sector technology touches
  • This deflation is good — it represents real abundance, more goods for less effort
  • Central-bank suppression of this deflation through monetary expansion is the policy choice underneath observed economic patterns
  • A monetary architecture that accommodates deflation captures technological gains broadly; one that suppresses deflation captures them narrowly

The framework is complementary to but distinct from the Austrian framework. Austrian theory focuses on time preference and capital structure; Booth focuses on the productivity-vs-monetary-expansion dynamic. The two frameworks reach similar conclusions through different analytical paths.

See: Hard money vs fiat money, Critiques of Keynesian economics.

The asset-inflation-vs-consumer-stability framing

A specific empirical pattern the framework illuminates: the post-2008 period has produced massive asset-price inflation alongside relatively stable consumer prices. The mainstream economics framework treats this as a puzzle; Booth’s framework explains it directly:

  • Central-bank expansion enters the economy through the financial system
  • The expansion flows into asset markets (stocks, real estate, bonds) before reaching consumer markets
  • Technological deflation in consumer goods absorbs the expansion’s effect on consumer prices
  • The result is the observed pattern — asset-rich households gain dramatically while labor-income households see flat real wages

The framework provides a single mechanism for what mainstream economics treats as separate phenomena. This is part of why the book has been persuasive to readers who find the mainstream account incomplete.

The labor-vs-capital framing

Booth’s framework connects to a recognizable contemporary political phenomenon — the wealth gap between asset-owning households and labor-income households. The framing:

  • This gap is not a natural economic outcome
  • It is the policy consequence of suppressing technological deflation through asset-inflating monetary expansion
  • The political-economy implications are substantial — the framework explains why labor-income households feel structurally disadvantaged in ways that other frameworks do not

This framing makes the book politically resonant in ways that Austrian-tradition writing typically is not. It also makes the book accessible to readers who do not share Austrian methodological commitments.

The Bitcoin-as-engineered-answer framing

Bitcoin is positioned as the engineered response to the structural problem the book identifies. The framework treats Bitcoin’s specific design choices — fixed supply, deterministic issuance schedule, halving — as direct responses to the deflation-suppression problem:

  • Fixed supply prevents the deflation-suppression policy
  • Deterministic issuance prevents discretionary monetary expansion
  • The halving makes the issuance schedule increasingly tight over time

The framing is consonant with Ammous’s framework but reaches it through different analytical pathways. A reader convinced by Booth has been convinced by the technological-deflation framework rather than by the Austrian framework; a reader convinced by Ammous has been convinced by the Mengerian-praxeological framework. Both pathways lead to the same constructive conclusion.

Influence and reception

The Price of Tomorrow has had unusual reach for a Bitcoin-positive work, particularly among technology-oriented readers.

Within the Bitcoin space

The book was immediately recognized as adding a distinctive framework to the contemporary canon. Its accessibility (short, clear, non-technical) made it widely recommended as an introductory text for technology-oriented friends and colleagues of Bitcoin advocates. The audiobook has been particularly influential in spreading the framework.

Beyond the Bitcoin space

The book has reached substantial audiences outside Bitcoin-specific readership. Technology-industry executives, venture capitalists, and macro-curious technology workers have engaged it widely. The book functions as an orange-pilling text — many readers have come to Bitcoin through Booth’s framework rather than through the Austrian tradition.

Endorsement and adoption patterns

The book has been recommended by a wide range of Bitcoin-canon figures (Ammous, Alden, Breedlove, Boyapati, Bhatia) as a complementary framework. Its position in the canon is secured but its analytical role is specific — the book is the technology-deflation entry point rather than the comprehensive treatment.

Booth’s subsequent platform development

Booth’s post-book platform — podcast appearances, online courses, conference speaking — has extended the framework continuously. The book is the foundational statement; Booth’s ongoing output applies the framework to contemporary developments.

Counter-arguments and tensions

The framework is sometimes too compressed

At ~150 pages, the book moves quickly through arguments that other contemporary canon develops at greater length. Some readers find the brevity makes the framework absorbable; others find it sacrifices depth in places where the argument needs more development. The empirical case for technological deflation, in particular, would benefit from more sustained data-and-mechanism analysis.

Engagement with Austrian foundations is selective

The book is broadly compatible with Austrian economics but does not engage it deeply. Readers expecting Mengerian, Misesian, or Hayekian foundations will find the book lighter on theoretical apparatus than Ammous’s or Bhatia’s work. From an Austrian-purist standpoint, the framework lacks the depth a comprehensive treatment requires; from a mainstream-bridge standpoint, the absence is a feature.

The deflation framing can be politically misread

The book argues that deflation is good when it represents technological productivity. Mainstream economics often treats deflation as bad (citing the Great Depression, Japan’s lost decades, the deflationary spiral risk). The two framings address different phenomena — productivity-driven deflation vs debt-deflation-spiral deflation — but the book does not always distinguish them sharply. Critics have argued that conflating the two undermines the framework’s analytical clarity.

The monetary mechanism is sketched rather than developed

The book identifies the monetary expansion → asset-inflation mechanism but does not develop it at the institutional depth that Bhatia’s Layered Money or Alden’s Broken Money provide. Readers wanting the operational mechanics should pair this book with those.

The Bitcoin-specific design analysis is brief

Like Broken Money, the book’s Bitcoin-specific design analysis is comparatively short. The framework focuses on why a fixed-supply monetary system is needed; the specific design choices that produce that system are treated lightly. Readers wanting depth on the protocol should pair with Antonopoulos’s Mastering Bitcoin.

The political-economy implications are understated

The framework has strong political-economy implications (labor-vs-capital distributional consequences of monetary policy) that the book engages cautiously. Some readers see this caution as a feature (the framework stays analytical rather than becoming polemical); others see it as a deficit (the political implications are part of why the framework matters).

Engagement with critics is brief

The book engages mainstream economic critics briefly. Readers wanting systematic critique-engagement should pair with Criticisms of Bitcoin and adjacent canon.

The framework’s persuasiveness depends on audience

The book is highly persuasive to technology-oriented readers who have observed deflation in their own industries and who are open to the labor-vs-capital framing. It is less persuasive to economists trained in mainstream macroeconomics, who tend to engage the framework’s specific claims (deflationary spirals, the effective lower bound, the relationship between productivity and prices) with technical objections the book does not fully anticipate.

How to read this source

Essential chapters

The book is short enough that a focused reader can read it end-to-end in 3–4 hours. There is little material that can be skipped. If pressed:

  • The opening chapters on technological deflation — empirical grounding
  • The middle chapters on the monetary response — analytical core
  • The closing case for Bitcoin — constructive synthesis
  1. Read this book first — accessible entry point to the framework
  2. Follow with The Bitcoin Standard (Ammous) — the Austrian-theoretical framework
  3. Follow with Broken Money (Alden) — the empirical macro framework
  4. Follow with Layered Money (Bhatia) — the institutional-architecture framework

The book is the best first read for technology-oriented readers who would not engage Austrian-tradition writing on first contact.

What to read alongside

  • Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard — theoretical foundation
  • Lyn Alden, Broken Money — empirical synthesis
  • Various technology-deflation writers and tech-industry commentators — for the technology-side context Booth’s framework builds on

Where to find this source

  • Paperback and hardcover through standard booksellers and Booth’s site
  • ISBN information available through Booth’s online platform

Digital and audio

  • Ebook editions through Amazon Kindle and Apple Books
  • Audiobook narrated by Booth himself; widely recommended

Author’s online platform

  • Jeff Booth’s site (jeffbooth.com) and platform — extends the framework with current applications
  • Podcast appearances — frequent guest on Bitcoin-canon podcasts (Saifedean’s, The Bitcoin Layer, What Bitcoin Did, the Investor’s Podcast Bitcoin Fundamentals)

Place in the broader Bitcoin canon

Open questions

  • The technological-deflation framework is empirically observable across technology-touched sectors. How well does it generalize to sectors where technology adoption is partial (energy, healthcare, education)?
  • The asset-inflation-vs-consumer-stability framing is descriptively powerful. How does the framework engage with mainstream economic critiques (the effective lower bound, the deflationary-spiral risk, the productivity-and-prices relationship)?
  • The framework reaches Bitcoin through a different analytical pathway than the Austrian tradition. Are the two frameworks fully compatible, or do they reach different conclusions in specific cases?
  • The labor-vs-capital framing has strong political-economy implications. What does the framework say about specific policy proposals (UBI, sovereign wealth funds, asset-price taxation) that engage the same distributional question?
  • The book is brief by design. Would a longer revised edition with more empirical and theoretical development strengthen the framework, or is the brevity essential to the book’s reach?
  • The post-2024 institutional adoption of Bitcoin and the post-COVID inflation episode have shifted the empirical context. How does the framework engage these developments, and where in Booth’s ongoing output does the framework’s evolution show?

The author

  • Jeff Booth — biographical and intellectual treatment

Concepts engaged by the work

Antecedents the work synthesizes

  • Technology and productivity-economics literature (Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, others)
  • Selected Austrian economics (engaged loosely)
  • Practitioner observations from the technology industry

Adjacent and complementary sources

Companion canonical sources

Critics and sympathetic-critic engagement

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Backlinks