This article with quotes and comments from Elon Musk about economic productivity and scarcity in the future and their impacts about need for retirement savings is remarkable. No need to save for retirement if you are 15-20 or more years away from that timeframe!?

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/elon-musk-says-saving-retirement-174705539.html

I am curious what the board de Politics thinks about this and the wide-ranging societal and political ramifications if he is even close to accurate?

I'm not a doom and gloomer about AI but do think robotization combined with AGI will literally change life as we know it. And no, I don't believe blue collar / trades careers are any more safe than white collar careers.

It is going to be a wild ride!

Even if it comes true there's going to be a rough period where transition takes place and people would need a nest egg to get them through it.

AI and robotics will change the workforce in our lifetime. But it won't eliminate the need for human workers. And it won't make money meaningless.

Cromagnum said:

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I fear that anyone saving for retirement now is going to look like a chump later when whatever you saved is worthless.

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Elaborate. Hyperinflation?

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I'm not a doom and gloomer about AI but do think robotization combined with AGI will literally change life as we know it. And no, I don't believe blue collar / trades careers are any more safe than white collar careers.

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There is a vast difference between current LLM based AI and true AGI. And so far it doesn't appear that AGI will be achieved in this manor. We shall see, I guess...

Signel said:

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It just doesn't add up. They keep saying that AI and robotic automation will give us unlimited supply. How the hell can you have unlimited supply when there are only so many resources available to make things?

You can't give everyone unlimited universal basic income and expect everyone to be content.

On top of that, I expect governments to screw up any kind of regulations. The tidal wave will be crazy and we are all standing on the shore watching it roll in.

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It doesn't. At best, it makes things really, really efficient which doesn't solve resource scarcity.

Have commented on this multiple times before. He repeated this messaging at Davos and laughed off humanity losing their reason for purpose and existing as an unavoidable outcome.

Only way to solve scarcity is to invent an unlimited energy source or be able to efficiently mine resources in space. I guess former could happen but latter is decades and decades away.

It's happening as we speak. My companies warehouses are on their way to being completely automated. Robots as far as the eye can see.

I think Musk would tell you the "lack of scarcity" he is talking about deals with labor and intelligence, not raw materials.

Musk is working on all three. It may seem impossible but so far it's just late.

The danger with this rapid automation via AI and robots is that the only solution to backstop the job loss upheaval until his robots mythically solve scarcity is UBI. Much of Big Tech dorks are pushing this as the solution for now. I keep seeing "governments will need to get creative and implement UBI".

There is nothing creative about a new welfare program on top of existing welfare. UBI is not remotely affordable nor sustainable. So, things will get worse before they get better on the job front.

A_Gang_Ag_06 said:

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Elon reminds me of the autistic guy at our gym. Engineer that speaks multiple languages but farts every time he rolls, can't control the volume of his voice, and has spent four years trying to master a basic armbar.

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Farting and shouting are normal in BJJ.

But four years of training and still not being able to do a basic armbar is just plain disgusting!

elfurioso92 said:

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He's selling robots and AI, I wouldn't expect him to say everything is going to suck in the future because the tech I'm creating will take over all of the jobs. These utopian visions always run up against the realities of resource and energy needs, government regulation, and human nature.

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Yet, he actually did. When Fink asked him how his vision would impact humanity's desire to work, be productive, and have purpose Elon's response was: "Well, no plan is perfect."

I listened to it live.

I hope he is right.

I'm behaving as though he couldn't be more wrong.

Edit To Add: In a world where income means nothing and needs are supposedly taken care of....what kind of centralized power is required to actually do that?

txags92 said:

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Z3phyr said:

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Options:
-You save money and don't need it because AI created utopia
-You save money and you use it to retire
-You don't save money but turns out you need it
- You save money, but the marxists in the government decide to take it from you and give it to other people who didn't save anything and never worked a day in their life.
-Skynet

Saving for retirement doesn't make any situation worse, not saving could

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You forgot the option that is actually most likely at this point.

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That is looped into Skynet

AxelFoley85 said:

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It's happening as we speak. My companies warehouses are on their way to being completely automated. Robots as far as the eye can see.

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Sounds like your company is behind the curve on this.

Cromagnum said:

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I fear that anyone saving for retirement now is going to look like a chump later when whatever you saved is worthless.

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So buy gold?

doubledog said:

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aggiez03 said:

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It is going to be a wild ride!

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Should we take retirement advice from someone who is now worth over 800 billion?

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Good point.

My counter is:

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Should we take retirement advice from someone who is a CEO (unless we are CEOs ourselves)

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Jokes aside, Elon Musk is a clown outside of his business achievements (which are stupendous). He is at a point in life where he is tired of winning in business and making billion after billion and now gets his kicks by making outrageous statements online and watching the reaction.

Don't take him seriously.

If you stop working on your retirement, and then you find out that things haven't changed as much as Elon said it would, they all he has to do is say oops sorry... what I said was not investment advice. You are screwed, he is not. He won't give you even 0.1 Billion to get by.

techno-ag said:

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Listen to this guy for retirement. S&P ETFs and avoid debt like the plague.

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techno ag got it right.

Cromagnum said:

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I fear that anyone saving for retirement now is going to look like a chump later when whatever you saved is worthless.

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Shouldn't your savings also be inflated, as long as it's in the market and not sitting in a savings account.

Nah, we're the market leader and frankly there isn't anyone close.

Elon's ideas make no sense to me. There's still going to be a scarcity of assets that need to be divided up among society. People are going to have to differentiate themselves in some way to be able to acquire said assets.

There will be a point in the future - how far into the future is anyone's guess - where evrything is automated.

To be clear, EVERYTHING means EVERYTHING. It won't matter if the task is blue or white collar.

When this happens, you have to ask what will become of humans? Many think life will be utopian with no wants in the world though reality will most likely devolve into a resource scarce hellhole for a massive majority of humans.

The reason I believe this is what we can expect is because there is no way a Trillion+ humans can go about life doing whatever they want and consume whatever they want. ALL resources on this planet (including renewables) are finite therefore they will need to be rationed to the extreme and who or what will get to decide how much each individual will receive? Our current form of rationing, currency via income, will no longer exist because there will not be a means for individual humans to generate value (thus earning an income).

Will everyone be rationed the exact same amount (which we all know won't apply to the top 1-3% power brokers)?

Will a class system develop that makes "A Brave New World" envious?

Who will be the top 1-3% that basically make global decisions? Will that 1-3% even be human?

ADDED: I guess the world could take the "Pantheon" route and plug everyone into the cloud which would eventually kill off the human race since no one would procreate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon_(TV_series)

I'm not saying I'm in full agreement, but just imagine how much has changed in the last 100 years. If AI enables that kind of advancement but compresses it to ten or even 20 years it will be a wild ride.

100 years ago:

1. The Medical Revolution
Antibiotics: A simple infection or scratch could be fatal; penicillin did not exist.
Infant Mortality: Death during infancy was 10 times more common than it is today.
Lifespan: Average life expectancy was only 54-58 years, compared to nearly 80 today.

2. Infrastructure & Physical Labor
Plumbing: Half of U.S. homes lacked indoor toilets and running water.
Electricity: Most rural homes had no power, relying on kerosene lamps and wood stoves.
Food Storage: No electric refrigeration; "ice boxes" meant limited, seasonal diets.
Manual Labor: Basic chores like laundry were grueling, day-long physical ordeals.

3. Connection & Travel
Isolation: Most people rarely traveled beyond their home county.
Aviation: Seeing a plane was a rare spectacle; commercial flight was non-existent.
Information: News moved at the speed of paper and ink, not instant digital feeds.

4. Economic Survival
Food Costs: Families spent 25% of their income on food (vs. ~10% today).
Work Hours: The 60-hour work week was standard; child labor was still legal.
Leisure: Hobby and "free time" were luxuries few could afford or access.

txaggie_08 said:

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Elon's ideas make no sense to me. There's still going to be a scarcity of assets that need to be divided up among society. People are going to have to differentiate themselves in some way to be able to acquire said assets.

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That's a good thing. One should not try and make sense of eccentric world's richest man who is also probably one of the smartest men in history who also almost certainly lays comfortably on "the spectrum" who is also a world-class narcissist with the money, freedom and platforms to say whatever the flip he wants.

Always consider this when listening to Elon, for better or worse.

I'm sure in the future the government will be able to provide me with soylent green but I'd like to save a little now so that I can afford a steak dinner.