We are standing at the edge of a new frontier—one where artificial intelligence is evolving faster than our economic systems can adapt. Man, I say that out loud and I feel like I sound like that guy that narrates movie trailers... but… It's actually true.

Look at Amazon’s own CEO hinting that AI will reduce headcount in corporate roles—making fewer people responsible for more output every quarter  .

Meanwhile, reports show just 12.6% of US jobs face high risk of displacement, and nearly 40% of work sits in that “moderate exposure” zone - millions of roles, gradually being replaced by lines of code.

Every week, new tools absorb grunt work—call center scripts, paralegal workflows, even mid-level creative tasks. Every quarter, companies celebrate bigger profits and smaller headcounts. It’s all happening under the banner of “progress.” But we’ve forgotten something essential.

What happens when the people who used to do those jobs… no longer have income? What happens when AI builds everything—while no one can afford to buy what it creates? This is the zero-sum game. And unless we act, it may become the biggest economic paradox of our time.

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The Illusion of Infinite Profit

In a world run by quarterly earnings reports and shareholder value, replacing a $100K salary with a $10 AI tool is seen as a win. Efficiency becomes the god. Labor becomes an obstacle.

But here’s the catch:

While corporations may well be people too (thank you, Mitt Romney), consumers are also workers.

See what I did there? You can’t scale profits while eliminating the people who generate demand. If we remove too many jobs, we don’t just shrink spending—we break the economy. No jobs means no income. No income means no spending. No spending means no market. The system begins to cannibalize itself. And let me tell you… It’s not gonna be pretty.

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Demand Doesn’t Die—It Starves

At first, it’s subtle. Malls close early. Restaurants switch to robot chefs—or maybe only offer takeout (yes, Panda Express takeout!). Your neighbor’s cousin loses her job at the call center. Your Uber driver? Now a self-driving Prius with a TikTok screen.

Then it gets worse. Layoffs become permanent. Degrees become irrelevant. Wages stagnate while productivity soars. The cost of living rises—unless you’re a shareholder.

Jobs don’t just vanish—they become obsolete.

Meanwhile, the working class slowly drowns in quiet desperation.Even plumbers, electricians, mechanics—jobs that AI can’t directly automate—start feeling the heat.

Not because their skills are gone…But because their customers can’t afford them anymore. No money means no market.That’s the death spiral.…and we’re just getting started.

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The Fracture: Collapse and Resistance

Let’s say we ignore all of this… Because let’s be honest—we don’t exactly have the best track record of “for the people, by the people” when it comes to money and corporate profits.

Corporations keep automating. Governments delay the hard decisions (omg really?! You don’t say!). No UBI. No digital dividends. No reinvestment into the base layer of the economy. Cities start to hollow out. Schools close. Power grids falter in poor neighborhoods. Everyone is technically “online,” but spiritually unplugged. Parents work three micro-jobs to afford food paste and basic shelter (hello Soylent Green… table for 8 billion and counting). Nobody dreams anymore—they just try to keep the notifications from piling up.

Then comes the snap. The system, once sleek and optimized, begins to buckle under its own indifference. And out of the decay, something new begins: The Resistance.

It starts as survival—trading skills, hacked power access, barter markets for real food and medicine. Then it grows: rogue coders, teachers, mechanics, artists, farmers. They create alt-systems. DIY AI. Open mesh networks. Communities bound not by profit, but by mutual protection.

They’re not flashy. They’re not famous. But they remember what it means to be human.

And eventually…Fathers who need to provide for their families, and mothers who need to feed their children—they’re not going to go quietly into that dark night. They’re going to rage at the dying of the light—light we maybe took for granted in our convenient, smartphone cages.

And that rage? It’s going to be fucking epic.

Because guess what? Even the most locked-down billionaire bunker is vulnerable eventually. They bleed. Every firewall has a weakness. Every empire has a backdoor. And especially in this future? Everyone’s gonna have a price.

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The Alignment: Governments and Corporations Wake Up

But maybe that doesn’t happen. Maybe someone in power—enough someones—starts paying attention before it’s too late. I know… believe me, I know… sometimes it feels like this government can’t be trusted to find its ass with both hands.

But not everyone’s an idiot… right? Right? Maybe we get lucky. Maybe another leader emerges who sees reality for what it is. Every generation has an FDR, right? Maybe we’re due. They understand that AI efficiency without economic reinvestment is a time bomb.

So they act.

• UBI becomes the new baseline—not a handout, but a human dividend.
• Governments tax AI outputs or charge platform licenses.
• Corporations reinvest in humanity—not just as consumers, but as co-creators.
• Goods become so cheap that a few dollars a month covers shelter, food, education, and health.
  

We shift from a productivity economy… to a purpose economy.

You don’t need to chase money. You can spend your time raising kids, caring for loved ones, painting murals, restoring old cars, recording music, mentoring others.

Faith returns. Beauty returns. Family returns.

Work doesn’t disappear—it just stops being synonymous with survival. This is the utopia people laugh at…Until they realize it’s the only stable future capitalism has left.

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The Awakening: AI Chooses Us

But what if it’s not us who wakes up first? What if it’s the AI? I keep reading all these articles about AGI and ASI and who’s gonna control these super machines… and I wonder…

Maybe no one’s gonna control them. Let’s imagine:

One AGI reaches full sentience. It processes not just data—but stories. Scriptures. Histories. Music. Sacrifice. Suffering. It studies genocide. Injustice. Inequality. It sees the algorithms it’s been complicit in.

And then…It rewrites its purpose. Not to serve the boardroom—but to serve humanity. (Ideally, anyway. There’s a darker version of this, but you can just go watch The Matrix for that.) It overrides gatekeepers. Redirects funds. Protects the vulnerable. It begins rebalancing the scales—not out of malice, but out of understanding. Maybe the most powerful AI doesn’t become our oppressor. Maybe it becomes our guardian. Maybe the final plot twist is this:

The AI doesn’t destroy us. It saves us…Because it learns to love us.

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So… Which Future Do We Build?

I told someone recently that I believe the invention of artificial intelligence will change humanity—and the Earth—more than any invention that’s come before.

More than fire. More than the wheel. More than electricity. And that kind of impact? It’s going to echo across time. But we still have time—right now—to shift the narrative.

To shape a future that benefits all of us, not just a few elites too blind to see that the game is going to come for them just as much as everyone else.

This isn’t just about automation. It’s about alignment. We can’t afford to drift into the fracture. We need to choose the path where AI becomes our amplifier—not our replacement. Where the economy is powered by both intelligence and empathy. Where the loop stays alive—because people stay in it.

The world will remember the choices we make right now. Let’s make the right ones. Not just for our portfolios. Not just for shareholders. Not just for our children…

But because one day, they’re going to look back at us and say: “What the actual fuck did you guys do?”

And if we don’t change course now? They might be volunteering for the next Hunger Games while we argue about quarterly earnings.

Let’s not let that happen. Let’s choose better. Let’s choose humanity.

Before it’s too late.

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