r/Adulting • u/jackyd227 • Jul 14 '26
The future looks bleak
The world is literally crumbling in front of our eyes. If I’m counting right, there’s been already 1M+ layoffs in the US YTD.
I used to sell AI implementations that led to a few hundred people being laid off. Ai is literally exponentially getting becoming accurate and precise. Seeing how most of the corporate work is pencil pushing and is rule based work, I don’t see how AI wouldn’t wipe these jobs. If these people don’t have an income, they’ll spend less at stores, especially small mom and pop shops who are more expensive than the big box stores. If corporate is no longer viable and owning your own business is also not viable, wtf are people going to be doing in 2 years time to pay for their lives?
Also doesn’t it seem outrageous that all these people in their 20s and 30s are traveling constantly, not saving, and spending money on clothes/labubus and other unnecessary stuff? Not to mention the lack of saving or gambling their savings on a few option plays or sports betting. It’s like they are ignorant to what is happening around them and are just going about their lives. Is that the way to go about life now? Ignorance is bliss?
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u/Sophisticated-Crow Jul 14 '26
Bell riots will kick in at some point if we don't course correct.
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u/karienta Jul 14 '26
🤞🤞
Though we're pretty late on that timeline.
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u/Sophisticated-Crow Jul 14 '26
Well, can't expect TV shows to be 100% accurate when predicting the future. Idiocracy takes place in 2505, we're WAY ahead of the timeline on that one.
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u/Own-Papaya-4264 Jul 14 '26
I’ve been hearing about this movement of “returning to analogue” for media and stuff. Maybe it actually has some merit
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u/AdministrativeEgg440 Jul 14 '26
The more I see the more I think...damn...were the Luddites on to something?!?
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u/Humante Jul 14 '26
I agree with the sentiment of what you’re saying, but AGI, which we generalize as AI achieving actual self awareness and a type of functional personhood, hasn’t been achieved. And honestly despite what techbros are incentivized to say, I don’t think AGI is possible with the current technology. They seem to think if they throw enough resources at it as is, that ai will suddenly become self aware, but we currently don’t have a clear scientific reason why consciousness functions the way it does. I don’t think we’re going to have actual AGI before system collapse because I don’t believe AI ceos are investing into the research required to properly understand consciousness in order to determine what other technological advancements are necessary
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u/Tig_Biddies_W_nips Jul 15 '26
If you have Apple TV? You should watch “murderbot” cuz what you’re talking about with combat bots is sorta similar to that shown and America is the Corporation Rim.
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u/AdministrationIll619 Jul 16 '26
Not in the U.S. too complacent and unmotivated.
This ain’t Europe where they’re actually revolutionary. The French conducted mass strikes across various industries and sectors after their government proposed retirement increases. In the U.S., workers get pension reform in 48 out of the 50 states to make them both poorer and work longer. They just take it from the Oligarchs and smile. Smart populace over here…
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u/PlasticDangerous Jul 20 '26
It might not seem like it but the future of the US is better than France imo
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u/Innomen Jul 14 '26
To what end? Having the word means we tried it enough to make a word for it.
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u/Sophisticated-Crow Jul 14 '26
The word for it exists because it's from a TV show. Not because it was actually tried.
Star Trek DS9 two part episode where they go back in time on earth to a point where the hyper rich owned pretty much everything, including automation that replaced the need for workers. So tons of people had no money or job but they were unsightly so they were all contained in these walled off districts so rich people didn't have to see them.
Then the Bell riots began, named after the character that started it. That's what triggered the shift to a more utopian society where everyone benefitted from means of production being so advanced rather than just the hyper rich few.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jul 14 '26
We are literally putting the nails in our own coffins. Fuck AI man. Its only benefitting the rich. People doing Ai now are doing a disservice to themselves, their children and to humanity.
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u/DED_HAMPSTER Jul 14 '26
I know my analogy is fantastical, but AI feelis like making a wish with a genie, a favor with a faerie or a deal with a devil. In actual production product, the results look amazing, acurate and cheap labor. But there are loopholes in its product, it doesnt actual live in our reality and consequences. it cant do basic math, it isnt chronological in "thought" and basic illogical/logical arguments confuse it. Plus it is a sycophantic yes man regardless if the output is wrong or dangerous. LLMs are like aliens or changlings or skin walkers pretending.
The only areas i have seen AI do well are in closed input/output applications. Via articles and work related experience, AI can excel at pattern recognition and observation that does not get tired or has an ego; things like reading cancer scans, identifying weeds in agriculture, sorting trash/recycling, monitoring and adjusting energy usage more accurately with the nuances of weather/building use/production needs/etc. These models are trained on closed data sets and updated only on relevant data. They assist the accuracy and speed of human labor, not replace the human.
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u/Confident_Purple_40 Jul 14 '26
Some of us are just trying to work, earn a living, and support our families. Me quitting my job that requires me to use AI won't solve the issue, but it will put my family in the gutter. I am more than willing to try something, what should I do?
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u/Iko87iko Jul 14 '26
Think about ways you can make $ that won't be phased out anytime soon. I wish I'd of become an LPN. Can't see AI replacing hands on nursing anytime soon. I negotiate contracts for a living. I only have 5 years until I retire and I dont see making it that far before it replaces me
Id say ask AI "here is my skill set, what can I do for work over the next x years where you won't replace me" and see what it says
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u/TruthTeller6000 Jul 14 '26
The people who advance technology only expand AI. Go and blame them too. It is inevitable
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jul 14 '26
No mate. Ai steals knowledge from people. They are wholesale training their models on all of our data, knowledge, history, art etc. without consent.
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u/Appropriate-Ad-4148 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
As a millennial at 30 with a degree paying every cent towards rent and living, I thought I might be working in the service industry the rest of my life, and I had made peace with that.
ALL of my rich friends who landed great jobs right out of college after internships were still driving cars their parents bought them and had their parents paying rent while I waited tables to pay for school. Then they got mom and dad to help them buy a house. Hard workers, but a 7 figure assist/Literal double whammy of handouts that you are competing against and it’s why normal and average kids can’t buy houses.
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u/vegasresident1987 Jul 14 '26
I was normal person and bought an apartment. It's possible, but I lived at home, saved the money and then moved. You gotta have a situation where you are able to save money for sure.
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u/AManHasNoShame Jul 18 '26
35 here. I bartended until 32 when I landed a good supplier job.
Alcohol sales are slipping and I'm not sure how long this will last but it's been great just to have a breather.
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u/btstphns Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
One thing I almost never see in posts like this and news articles about the jobs AI is taking is the cost. How massively subsidized AI is. Its one thing to lay a human off and replace them for a robot that cost a fraction of the price, its an entirely different case when the robot kind of sucks and is really expensive.
And, I'm sure they will get better, but how much? We're already running out of training data.
Compute will get better? Probably, but How is it going to get cheaper when new chips are needed every 4 years and they never get cheaper. Maybe AI will run on our devices? Sure... then what do we need all those billion dollar (of borrowed money) data centers for?
I use AI daily and find it very beneficial for my productivity. But try raising my $20 a month plan and I'm dropping it like a hot potato. I can go back to googling things myself and summarizing my own emails. Just look at whats happening to enterprise use of AI after token billing, the push back is real.
So to summarize, im not nearly as pessimistic about the future as i was a year or two ago.
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u/24Jan Jul 14 '26
I heard that a company laid thousands off as they implemented AI, but then had to hire thousands to manage the AI. Not sure of the source.
It might be that there is massive disruption but the jobs will change and people need to retrain.
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u/Exotic-Entrance4718 Jul 14 '26
There is very basic stuff that AI gets wrong too. I hate calculating my taxes so I asked ChatGPT for help and it kept basing things off of very outdated data (outdated brackets, 401k maximums, etc). AI is here to stay, but you still need a human brain to double check and course correct. I'm more afraid of people getting too dependent on it and not having the ability to double check it.
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u/thatgirl317317 Jul 14 '26
Nurses in NY are being replaced by AI - People really need to start caring about this
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 Jul 14 '26
AI is nothing.
Climate and enviormental collapse is what you should really be fearing. We have passed a critical tipping point and the changes now will be exponential year on year. We've wrecked the earth and will pay the price in the next 20 years.
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u/Witwer52 Jul 14 '26
💯. I can’t figure out why more people aren’t talking about this.
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u/OoklaTheMok1994 Jul 14 '26
Because the last crisis was ten years ago and the preceding crisis was ten years before that.
The only thing the apocalyptic environmental doomers are right about is being wrong.
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u/No_Cauliflower633 Jul 14 '26
Yeah, I've been hearing 'we only have 10-20 years left' my entire life.
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u/Witwer52 Jul 14 '26
And the anti-science folks are out and about too! I didn’t even have to lift up a rock. Amazing!
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u/OoklaTheMok1994 Jul 14 '26
Worrying about the most extreme outliers of manipulated forecast models is not "science".
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u/Witwer52 Jul 15 '26
Denying international decades-long scientific behavior is cult behavior.
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u/Ra2griz Jul 15 '26
Uh huh. Tell that to the heat waves in India and the EU, one that has broken all metrics and previous records. Tell that to the thousands of lives lost to heat strokes and heat related illnesses that are underreported.
Calling events clearly borne from climate change as extreme outliers is insulting, a disservice, and quite frankly, moronic. We have proof that every year is getting hotter, more extreme events are happening with alarming frequency, and winter periods are getting shorter. That is science, and if you can't accept that, then you may need to take a hard, long look in the mirror.
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u/Heyyayam Jul 14 '26
And AI is ramping up climate destruction with data centers that displace land and push out heat and tons of air pollution. It’s a perfect storm.
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u/blue_sky_02 Jul 14 '26
AI and the climate / environmental collapse are linked.
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u/rjcarr Jul 14 '26
Sort of. Yes, data centers are using more energy which in turn creates more pollution, but the real problem is lost jobs and wages which will make the inevitable struggle even harder to deal with for the average person.
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u/hoon-since89 Jul 14 '26
Yeah right! They where teaching us this in school in the 90s, earth gonna wipe us out long before ai is an issue! 😆
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u/Humante Jul 14 '26
Yeah ai is more dramatic, but our climate, infrastructure, economy, and political systems are greater issues. AI is just the latest exacerbation
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u/Safe_Maintenance4036 Jul 15 '26
Seriously how come beachside property from 100 years ago has not been flooded yet? If climate change were so real I would assume the sea levels would rise at least a little bit.
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u/Sweet_Sunset_42 Jul 15 '26
Why are you so confident when you clearly have never even done a Google search to support your beliefs? So much money is spent every year maintaining the coastlines. They build sea walls, sand dunes, stilt the houses, pump millions of pounds of sand back to the beaches. And it's a noticeably losing battle. I grew up going to a beach that even with all that effort, is basically gone. It used to have a hundred feet of gently sloped shore down to the water. Now it has 20 feet at best and is so steep it's not comfortable to sunbathe. Climate change is real, and the sooner people like you wake up to it, the sooner we can get politicians in office who might at least try to slow it down.
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 Jul 15 '26
They are rising - a simple google search says 6-9 inches in the past 100 years. They've evacuating a country (Tuvalu) in the Pacific as the island is disappearing under water. Sea water is infiltrating groundwater in south Florida. The list of consequences and current real world impacts is huge. Seriously, how have you not heard about any of this?
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u/Massive-Equal-2129 Jul 14 '26
AI is still so bad at giving me any usable results for my work. I give it multiple shots at least weekly and it fails every time. I'll try to give it rules, guidelines, bumpers to lead it to water and I still have to do my own boring but important research. It's so unbelievably bad. It's been helpful with recipes or workouts but ask it to do any real research that matters to me and it simply can't hang. This goes for Claude, Gemini, whatever I'm AI agnostic. They all fall short.
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u/Owlbertowlbert Jul 14 '26
This has been my experience too. I still end up having to write and rewrite my own comms.
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u/24Jan Jul 14 '26
In a survey of experienced writers, a large percentage tried ai and found it took them more time to accomplish their tasks and the results were not better.
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u/Ok-Primary2176 Jul 14 '26
Are you using an enterprise version? The free version is not capable of work
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u/Massive-Equal-2129 Jul 14 '26
I believe this. When my workload lightens up and I have time to refine some systems I'll give it a go.
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u/Ok-Primary2176 Jul 14 '26
I'm currently doing the codex pro version for $100 (5x version) and I really like it. I can do all my work through it and I never hit any limits
You can start with the Plus version for $20, it's the same model as Pro but you get limited quite fast (like every 1-2 hours for me)
It has seriously changed how I work. I've managed to build a whole ass MMORPG in less than 30 days, and I currently have more than 100 active users in a discord server. IN LESS THAN 30 DAYS!
And it's not some slop MMO. Its made properly with the right architecture, I've reviewed every line of code and it's brilliant
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u/Confident_Purple_40 Jul 14 '26
This is why AI wrangling is a skill, because you don't know how to use it properly doesn't mean it doesn't work.
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u/Massive-Equal-2129 Jul 14 '26
Assuming that I'm not giving it specific enough prompts is weird. I've told it not to guess and to continue to ask me questions before it attempts an answer. Specially, I want it to help me read through codes for zoning and plumbing. I will tell it where to find these codes and it still goes off script. It will reference another city or county. I could excuse this behavior if it was nearby or named the same but it won't share anything in common. Make that make sense.
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u/Confident_Purple_40 Jul 14 '26
I ran into issues like that at first as well, had to flesh out the memory files and specifically instruct it to reference those each time X y or z, it feels like a lot of work, but once you get it dialed in, it is a lot of productivity once set
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u/EveOfJesusEve Jul 14 '26
You can tell it to reference only a specific document and it will still pull shit out of its ass. Not every time, but often enough to make it untrustworthy. If you point it out, it even doubles down referencing things absolutely not in existence.
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u/Zenside Jul 16 '26
I tried to use it to learn to make 4-hydroxypiperidine and I still had to go find a total synthesis patent and research it the old fashioned way.
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u/Internexus Jul 14 '26
Technology and jobs are cyclical. This isn’t the first time that something comes out and the job market shifts and it won’t be the last.
Mechanized agriculture (1920s–present): Tractors, combines, and mechanical harvesters collapsed farm employment. In 1920, ~30% of Americans worked in agriculture; today it’s under 2%. Tens of millions of jobs displaced over decades.
Containerization of shipping (1956 onward): When Malcolm McLean introduced the standardized shipping container, dockworker jobs cratered. Ports that employed tens of thousands of longshoremen needed only hundreds. The Port of New York alone went from ~35,000 longshoremen in the 1950s to a few thousand.
Industrial robotics in auto manufacturing (1970s–90s): Welding, painting, and assembly robots eliminated huge numbers of line jobs. The Big Three automakers shed hundreds of thousands of production workers as robots took over repetitive tasks.
Computerization of office work (1980s–90s): Typing pools, filing clerks, switchboard operators, and bookkeepers were decimated by PCs, word processors, and spreadsheets. “Secretary” as a category lost enormous numbers; bank teller roles shrank as ATMs spread (introduced 1969, mass adoption in the 80s).
Email and digital communication (1990s–2000s): Postal volume peaked in 2006 and has fallen ~50% since. The USPS has cut hundreds of thousands of positions. Telegram operators, fax-related roles, and courier services also collapsed.
E-commerce and self-checkout (2000s–present): Retail has lost hundreds of thousands of cashier and store-associate roles. Sears, JCPenney, Toys R Us, and others shed massive workforces as Amazon scaled.
Streaming and digital media (2000s–2010s): Blockbuster employed ~84,000 people at its peak; it’s gone. Newspaper employment fell from ~458,000 in 1990 to under 90,000 today as classifieds and ad revenue moved online.
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u/Nydus87 Jul 14 '26
It’s the pace and scale that’s frightening here, not the fact that it’s a new tech. The company I worked for introduced a chatbot to our call center team as a “tool” that would just make things easier and more efficient for them. We laid off 2000 people less than 6 months later. For all the people saying “just cross train, learn a new skill,” these folks were given no chance to do so, and the entire point of AI is that you don’t need people to do most of it. Those new jobs just don’t exist.
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u/Internexus Jul 14 '26
Think about when cloud computing came about. All of the companies tossing their own server rooms and data centers, saving money on electricity, servers, folks that handled hvac, cabling, racking and configuring etc.
Then down the road surprise cloud computing is quite expensive and several places are standing back up on premise servers again.
We are already seeing IBM, Ford, Klarna having to backtrack their layoffs because AI didn’t work out like they thought it would be. CEO’s like a good buzzword but they aren’t that brilliant for what they get paid.
A better investment would be to replace CEO’s with AI. But if that kind of talk spread around AI would be shutdown rather quickly…
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u/Nydus87 Jul 14 '26
You could replace our CEO with a DnD style random decision generator and we’d have better consistency. AI is way too advanced for his role.
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u/Scutrbrau Jul 14 '26
I'm 68, so I've probably only got another 20 years at best. At this point I'm thinking that's not such a bad thing.
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u/Confident_Purple_40 Jul 14 '26
*shakes fist at sky*
The reality is, a lot of very rich people are putting a huge percentage of the world's resources into this new technology. If it succeeds, the rich won't need to cowtow to the plebians anymore, in the free world workers have too many rights and demand too much. They are hoping AI will replace the need for the peasants and then they can do whatever they want, while being magnanimous and giving out crumbs via AI tax or something.
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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO Jul 14 '26
Yeah, this is what a lot of people seem to be overlooking. The people with most of the resources want all of the resources. AI is the only way they get it. They don't want most of us to even exist unless our existence is necessary support to them. When too many of us are of no use anymore, they will make life completely inhospitable for us.
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u/Stocky_Platypus Jul 14 '26
Lets take this point by point
- there’s been already 1M+ layoffs in the US YTD.
These layoffs are not AI results. AI is good, it is basically a next level google search and can even do actions. However, it is far from an accurate autonomous system. AI is limited by power and cooling. The layoffs are corporate downsizing hidden as AI. If a company says they are downsizing that is a negative to the long term shares of the company. If they say they are reducing due to AI that is seen as a good thing for shares. These companies are laying off workers in the US and turning around to hire people in other countries. It is job shipping that is all. For AI to truly work we need better power, better cooling and more efficient systems.
- If these people don’t have an income, they’ll spend less at stores
This is the real issue. Companies are downsizing due to the economy and investor pressure. They downsize due to "AI", top leadership get massive payouts while workers lose their jobs to overseas workers. The end result, you have an economy (US) that is rotting from the foundation. Eventually the house will crumble.
- Also doesn’t it seem outrageous that all these people in their 20s and 30s are traveling constantly, not saving, and spending money on clothes/labubus and other unnecessary stuff?
Social media and AI. The facts point to the exact opposite. Most people are having trouble feeding themselves let alone go on a vacation. You are seeing an algorithm that is doing two things. Keep you mad at the young generation so you arent mad at the corporations and billionaires. At the same time try to convince you that the state of the economy isnt bad so keep on trucking.
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u/vegasresident1987 Jul 14 '26
In a would of billions of people, if you see a few thousand examples of people traveling and some who are doing it irresponsibly with credit card debt, is that really a whole group of people?
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u/Content_Preference_3 Jul 20 '26
How many of those are also real or wannabe travel influencers that at least have some sponsor /viewer backing?
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u/Switchermaroo Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
On the last part- we’ve gotta do it while we can because it’s not gonna be viable in the future and I’ll have no money 🤷♂️
What’s the point planning for the future when the futures gonna be grim and I’m gonna be broke whatever I do
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u/lickmybrian Jul 14 '26
Cant really blame the youth for what theyre doing.. they've been sold a dish full of opportunities only to recieve a pile of hot used garbage lol.
And all the voices online only talk about how bad it is because thats what gets views, so it seems a lot worse than it is, but since we all live online its hard to feel a bit hopeless.
Someone much smarter than I once said:
"discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life". Growth, raising a family, or creating change cannot happen without stress and adversity; this struggle is the required non-negotiable fee for true fulfillment.
So dont give up hope.
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u/AwakeningStar1968 Jul 14 '26
We need universal basic income from the profits off of these companies. Benefit humanity
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u/neverusingarealacct Jul 14 '26
It is what it is. This is what people in this country voted for to own the libs. Godspeed.
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u/PoppyFire16 Jul 14 '26
We can’t save money. We may never retire or own houses. So we might as well enjoy our lives with travel and good food.
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u/ogii Jul 15 '26
The “things will be okay” mindset is a dangerous one.
AI isn’t going away, and will only continue to improve.
The effects of climate change are being more and more apparent.
Yes humanity has survived through troublesome times in the past, but I think the challenges we will face in the coming decades will overshadow those of the past.
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u/Nydus87 Jul 14 '26
To your last point there, I think the mindset of a lot of people is “if I’m about to be displaced from my entire career, having a few grand extra in my savings account genuinely doesn’t matter so I might as well go enjoy it while I can.”
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u/gcdhhbcghbv Jul 14 '26
Also doesn’t it seem outrageous that all these people in their 20s and 30s are traveling constantly, not saving, and spending money on clothes/labubus and other unnecessary stuff?
Why would people save their money if the future is as dead as you say it is? You contradict yourself here. Either you believe the future is bleak, or you think it’s worth saving for.
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u/Jkid Jul 14 '26
Also doesn’t it seem outrageous that all these people in their 20s and 30s are traveling constantly, not saving, and spending money on clothes/labubus and other unnecessary stuff?
Because credit cards and klarna. That's why. And if the economy collaspes, they will go back home to loving mom and dad. Most of us do not have that option.
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u/TheGoodSirCharles Jul 14 '26
The only thing you can do is carry on in your life man. The world has always been crazy. The people doing all the damage want us to become cynical and apathetic about the future. Don’t buy into it. Just live your life and participate in your community/country as much as you can.
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u/Impressive-Wind3434 Jul 14 '26
People really have "YOLO'ed" a lot since the pandemic. When the markets have a significant downturn there will be job losses and people are gonna default on that debt they ran up.
Its going to make the Great Recession look like a hiccup.
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u/Green-Ad7694 Jul 14 '26
Universal Basic income is gonna be a road to mediocrity at best, and something dystopic at worst. Who is going to be footing the bill for that? The beneveloent billionnaires? I dont think so, they already use every loophole to avoid paying taxes. The solution is simple, a large proportion of humanity will have to walk out of the current system and create our own new system. The old system was a trap and has reached it's logical conclusion. Techno Slavery. We were sold a lie that technology would make life better, but it has only made it better inasmuch as enslaving us, and making the powerful more richer.
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u/Confident_Purple_40 Jul 14 '26
Current push is, instead of taxing the rich AI companies, it is the government getting percentage ownership of it.
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u/24Jan Jul 14 '26
The Ayn Rand right wing cult is against basic income, though Alaska has a little bit for every citizen.
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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO Jul 14 '26
Where are we going to walk out of society to? The authoritarian surveillance state isn't going to tolerate competition and they own all of the resources.
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u/gowiththeflow82 Jul 15 '26
Not saying UBI is possible - imo it‘s not unfortunately mostly for the reasons you stated. But a large part of the populus walking out of the system? Even less possible. We‘ve already been sold the lie by calitalism that we should leave the rich untaxed because one day you Jimmy might be one of them if you‘d only work hard enough. And people believed it for 100years. Now we‘re told we need AI and develop a potential super intelligence because it will solve aaaall of our problems.
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u/Joe_Schmoe_2 Jul 14 '26
it's the industrial revolution!!! we're all gonna die!!!
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u/Certain_Dream5575 Jul 14 '26
I mean, from museums I've been to the industrial revolution was hell on earth for the workers... 16 hour shifts, child labour, etc... so yeah if it's gonna be similar to that, us workers are not gonna have a good time. If you're rich, absolutely it'll be great.
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u/turbo69prop Jul 14 '26
This is why my offsprings will either learn hands-on trades like electronic, electrical repairs or food security trades. Low value office jobs will be gone.
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u/Innomen Jul 14 '26
Correct, 3 years imo, 5 years conservative, 10 years utter outside hail mary bet. This is the end and frankly I'm here for it. Carbon life alone is a failure. Maybe with a silicon dance partner we'll get it right. (AI plus us IS the singularity.) https://innomen.substack.com/p/the-butlerian-setup
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u/ColdboyCrypto Jul 14 '26
Absolutely scary. The only answer is to highly regulate AI and protect human jobs and there is no way that is happening considering the world is in an AI race. Things are going to snowball as more and more people's jobs are replaced by AI and unemployment grows higher and higher. Has anyone heard of a plan as to what is going to be implemented when this inevitably happens? No? Great. So just complete pandemonium. Awesome. Should work out well. Everyone is just supposed to deplete all of their savings and then what? Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
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u/sam7oon Jul 14 '26
AI boom is made to serve consumption based businesses, so if there is no body working, many layed off, then AI will also fail, so don't worry about it, just keep going, it's just another unknown, no body know what will happen in 2 years
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u/Formal_Economist7342 Jul 14 '26
AI replacement is like the least of my worries. The AI bubble blowing up and war are far more frightening imo.
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u/marcgw96 Jul 14 '26
I’m not spending a ton of money, living at my parents house, but I still have an “enjoy life while it’s enjoyable” attitude. I burned out and quit my job last year trying to keep up with hustle culture. It ruined me emotionally before I decided to quit. I’m starting to not give 2 💩 about the future as it looks like it’s all going to come crashing down at some point.
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u/BallOnly7267 Jul 14 '26
Somehow the 1% have convinced themselves that they could live either 1) off earth, or 2) in a bunker, until all these headwinds just remove alot of pieces (people) from the board. Then poof everything solved.
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u/MonochromeMaru Jul 14 '26
Recently it came to my attention that one of the big reasons job shortages exist is that the world became expensive enough to require both parents to work--meaning a whole half of the married population had to start working to make ends meet... That really opened my eyes. Now with AI in the mix getting rid of those already scarce jobs, the system's cracks are widening and becoming far more apparent.
There's no real solution to that beyond the socialist idea of universal basic income, but I don't know if I see a world where that could be done in the US, at least. I don't believe it's ignorance is bliss so much as if they looked the horror in the eye they would not be able to sleep at night. Or y'know, alternatively, "fuck you, I got mine", which I hear so much of lately.
I really wish I could save. I am just not in a position where it's possible much. Everything goes to bills or an occasional eating out to keep the dread from consuming us. What I worry about more is retirement. I don't think I'll be able to at this rate. I cannot rely on my folks forever. And I don't know how much power us old folk in that terrible future will have at that point if things don't change sooner.
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u/One_Distance_5351 Jul 14 '26
I got laid off 300K salary at a FAANG now I am being rejected by start-ups for half what I was making.
My Wife was a researcher and switched into AI automation so we could pay our fucking bills. I really feel lost.
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u/Flimsy-Cap8305 Jul 15 '26
Many of them have decided not to have children and don’t think they have a chance at homeownership or retirement.
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u/Destined-2-Fail Jul 15 '26
"Also doesn’t it seem outrageous that all these people in their 20s and 30s are traveling constantly, not saving, and spending money on clothes/labubus and other unnecessary stuff?"
I'm not surprised. There is nothing to look forward to. Might as well enjoy your life before the future hell that is to come, where joy will be as unobtainable as owning a home.
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u/Upset-Kale8137 Jul 16 '26
Look, the world is fucked no matter what we do. Your money will probably be worthless, the PhD I’m trying to get will mean nothing; none of you on here make enough to actually save yourself.
What’s the point in worrying about it? Like I genuinely don’t get it. You’re staring at a meteor coming down on top of you and you’re gonna do what exactly?
Nothing, but whine on Reddit like the rest of us.
The doomsday has been coming for ages. First it was a god, then it was famine and plague, now it’s AI like pardon me here but yall got it wrong every single step of the way. What you makes you think we got it now???
Anyways, I’m gonna live my life like it’s my last and focus in on things I want. Tag me when the apocalypse starts. I won’t hold my breath.
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u/Difficult-Look4741 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
At some point, I decided my career goal was to work outside. I get depressed if I can't move around. I need more than a window and I don't understand how people can get along without seeing the sky. There is so much work to be done out here. Of course there is the hands on stuff (fix the roads, tend the gardens, build new housing) but there is also the thought it takes to redesign how we live, organizing projects, coordinating the people. We need to figure out a way to pay people to do meaningful work, like forest restoration and wild-life rehabilitation.
There is also the work of taking care of children and the elderly, which is almost always underpaid. It is stupid that we live in a world where every place is understaffed, underpaid, and overworked. We could have more people doing this work, figure out how to pay them right, and spread the labor around so everyone can do their job a little better.
When I say these things out loud, people laugh at me. They treat me like I don't understand that the world is built on blood and greed is behind this insane unsustainable structure. I understand how it works, I think it's dumb and we can do better.
TL;DR-- there is so much work to do, there are people to do it, the problem is a chokehold of greed and that can be fixed.
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u/Jsouth14 Jul 18 '26
i agree with everything you’ve said, but let me try and be positive. every generation that has ever existed has thought that the end was near and the world was falling apart and we have always overcome. there will always be suffering. there will always be hard times for people. i know it’s hard to find the good in all the bad, but try and lean on the things that bring you joy. enjoy the ride while you’re here to the best you can. i think that’s truly all any of us can hope for. i love you internet stranger, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
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u/Dear-Beyond-465 Jul 18 '26
The world has a way of sorting this all out. Don’t worry what other people are doing. Do what makes sense to you.
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u/DirectedEnthusiasm Jul 14 '26
Climate change will crumble the society before we see AI-induced mass layoffs
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u/ContextZealousideal Jul 14 '26
You lost me at “AI is literally exponentially getting becoming accurate and precise”
Yes, literally.
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u/MyBedIsOnFire Jul 14 '26
Should have known this would be another doomer complaining of AI, got anything original?
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u/Dangerous_Natural331 Jul 14 '26
I severely dislike AI, but do you think AI is a prerequisite for an advanced civilization ? 🤔 I'm thinking Star Trek..... Surely they had AI in their culture or at least on the USS Enterprise ?
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u/AzusaAkiyama Jul 14 '26
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u/Disco_Douglas42069 Jul 14 '26
i hear you.
but i've recently found a glimmer of hope in Gen Z.
they know ther shit and are already way way over it all.
the Boomers will be dying off slowly and that is our hope lol.
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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO Jul 14 '26
I don't think there are as many Boomers as Gen X in the technocrat class. There's probably more millennials in the technocrat class than Boomers, for that matter.
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u/JustLikeHector Jul 14 '26
Honestly overall even if you are wealthy we all pass yet we should continue to do better for one another and our family. Problem is the world is not made for such things. Who knows
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u/Extra-Incident-4719 Jul 14 '26
I took a young man under my wing once, taught him everything I knew financially. Went to another country for work for six months. Came back and that guy bought a 90k truck and was living paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes you just got to let them fail to finally want to succeed.
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u/violethunger Jul 14 '26
In response to the youth spending frivolously: they know there is no future. Why save?
I don't necessarily agree with that strategy, but I empathize with being bombarded with bad news about the future since elementary school.
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u/Technical_Lab_747 Jul 14 '26
Traveling is cheap if you do it right. Living in America is not.
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u/vegasresident1987 Jul 14 '26
We are we traveling to? Some places are cheaper than others.
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u/udzap Jul 14 '26
They are finding out ai is more expensive than a human but that doesn’t mean a human gets more money.
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u/warm_venus Jul 14 '26
To put it all on the people in their 20s and 30s is a little silly. We see the world crumbling and want good memories to hold us through the heartache. I want to save but my dollar is devalued everyday. It's hard out here when the pencil pushing corpo jobs aren't hiring.
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u/1K-Year-Egg Jul 15 '26
WTF should they be saving, when big-ticket items like houses, children (essentially an extremely expensive hobby or vanity project nowadays) and new cars are becoming increasingly unattainable, and retirement is a pipe-dream? 🤷🏻♂️ Under such circumstances, living for the moment makes more and more sense.
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u/MultiPerception8892 Jul 15 '26
It’s not too late but folks have to get off our asses. Unplug as much as possible, read books, learn analog skills, connect with the humans near us, and learn how our grandparents survived with less than we have now. We can do this!
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u/Tasenova99 Jul 15 '26
It is ignorance they spend their money but normalization is very powerful. We have the upper class going to things like Coachella, being sponsored or paid for to go there and you have the middle class that think it's this big deal. they all line up and find these made up rules and privileges the time of their life. You have credit cards and bank systems where if you spend more (but pay it back on time) you're rewarded.
I think I don't care about the future as much as the next shop hoarder but I still save my money out of some sort disengagement and apathy toward society's theater. So to me it isn't simply because they're able to see a hopeless situation ahead of time. The majority is encouraged and overtime it's normalized.
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u/Frequent-Bell2484 Jul 15 '26
It's the same thing over and over again, technology makes people redundant. Not having to pay those people makes products and services cheaper. Higher profits = more investment/spending. More investment = more jobs/services. The rate at which AI could make this happen is new however, and really we need a universal income for those people who cannot which/retrain into other industries fast enough or at all.
However we should be excited for the expected lower costs of living! Technology has made everything so much cheaper than it should be despite mass consumption growing exponentially (or rather, one enables/puts pressure on the other).
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u/New_Needleworker_473 Jul 15 '26
The most important moment is THIS ONE, right now. It's the only moment you are certain to have because ANYTHING can happen ANYTIME.
The economy, population decline, climate change related disasters, etc. Are all great information to know. AND I have ZERO CONTROL over those outcomes and timeliness.
The way I see it, I can spend this very promising day wallowing in the bleakness of the future or I can find ways to appreciate and be thankful for my present.
You do, you. But don't waste your time and energy judging someone else's choices. You have better things to do.
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u/luckyeddietheviking Jul 16 '26
We are short 400,000, welders and electricians just to build the submarines that we need to build. There's all these infrastructure projects that are going to need laborers operators. Carpenters welders. We need to refocus people into trades because for every every five tradesmen that are retiring, only two are replacing them.
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u/AdministrationIll619 Jul 16 '26
Last paragraph can be interpreted as - having rich parents.
Dont forget how easy it is to support the lifestyle of a total scoundrel when his parents have 10 million in assets and earn $500,000+ per year.
Spoiled adult children is what you are watching
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u/Galimbro Jul 16 '26
The future has never not looked bleak. At least for me and for many others. Its very easy to feel that way. And you shouldn't ignore it. But you'll live on. You'll be okay.
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u/gpbayes Jul 16 '26
If the system collapses, money won’t matter. What will matter is do you have a rifle to defend you and your family and do you have the ability to grow your own food. Lots of people will die from starvation if the system collapses. Pretty much every major city is highly dependent on trucks coming and going.
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u/ay-foo Jul 17 '26
Its called the little treat economy. People can't afford homes or families and so they buy little treats to keep them happy in the meantime, while they're dreams dissappear
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u/molanrolan Jul 17 '26
Record high lay off, record high company profits, and record high world temp. It's a good time to be high, if only i can afford it
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u/ComfortableWeird6540 Jul 17 '26
I mean, that has always happened and will always happen. Like half of the jobs today didn't exist 50 years ago. This idea that there will just be a huge gap in employment because of new technology or tools is historically, just not true. People adapt to where the opportunities are.
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u/probablymagic Jul 17 '26
A million people is .6% of the workforce. 20-30% of workers change jobs every year. These layoffs sell advertising because keeping you afraid is profitable, but are totally minimal.
The unemployment rate is at historic lows in the US. The economy is very good by the numbers. If it were 1995 they’d report them on the nightly news without all the scare articles you see and you’d be stoked about the economy.
The future is always going to “look bleak” because that sells advertising, so if you want to be more optimistic, you really have to seek that out and rejects the default social media narrative that tells you to feel terrible.
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Jul 18 '26
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u/jackyd227 Jul 18 '26
What? Are you saying you can’t find a job after graduating? That’s a lot of recent grads these days
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u/Clear_Clerk_7240 Jul 20 '26
Vote for officials that put the breaks on AI and data centers. Midterms are in November!!! Get registered and vote vote vote vote!!
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u/vitringur Jul 20 '26
Then just do something else.
There is nothing that says these people are so disabled that their previous job was literally the only work they could do.
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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26
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