Elon Musk recently suggested that in 10 to 20 years, saving
for retirement will not matter, arguing that advantages in AI,
energy and robotics could usher in an era of abundance that
renders traditional nest eggs obsolete.
Comments prompted swift pushback from retirement scholars and
wealth managers who said the vision overlooks stubborn real
world constraints and household risks.
Now Musk's case rests on a sweeping productivity boom,
smarter software, cheaper power and ambitious automation,
driving down the cost of goods and services from healthcare to
education, until scarcity fades. Even if parts of that prospect
materialize, it does not follow that workers can safely stop
building financial reserves today.
Now, researchers at leading retirement centers note that
near term risks remain unavoidable market volatility,
job loss, illness and potential changes to public benefits.
Several emphasized that Social Security faces funding
challenges that, absent legislative fixes, could
increase the burden on personal savings rather than eliminate
it. Advisors also stressed a basic
point. Future abundance is just an
idea. Rent, groceries and medical
bills are always going to be there.
Now. Some critics focused on
distribution rather than technology.
They argue that whether abundance translates into broad
financial security depends on political choices, taxation
transfers and the design of social insurance, which rarely
move in lockstep with engineering breakthroughs.
Innovation can arrive quickly. Equitable systems to share its
gains typically take decades now.
Others pointed to history. Past technology waves lifted
productivity without reliably shortening work weeks or even
distributing wealth. One researcher recalled that in
the 1950s, some employees at a defense think tank skipped
pension contributions because nuclear war felt inevitable.
That never came. The retirement shortfalls
definitely did, though. Now, for households deciding
what to do now, the guidance from academics and practitioners
is consistent. Keep continuing to do what
you're doing. Contribute to workplace plans,
at least enough to capture an employer match.
Maintain an emergency fund so short term shocks don't force
withdrawals. Revisit portfolio risk.
As retirement approaches and assumes Social Security will
remain an important but incomplete pillar of support, it
might go away. And if a world of abundance
arrives on an aggressive timetable, accumulated savings
will become an extra margin of freedom in a cheaper economy, an
outcome few would regret. The broader debate remains
unresolved. Though technological optimism
imagines a future or scarcity receipts, the personal finance
discipline recognizes the bills come due on schedule.
Until policy catches up with the promise of abundance, most
households are just better off to save.
And you treat abundance as a potential upside just in case.
So you'll have this nest egg. Let's say you save up to
$100,000. And the abundance does come.
You know, we've been promised abundance in the past.
Henry Ford for one. Let's just talk about that.
Henry Ford talked about how everybody would be able to
afford pretty much everything because cars would make it
cheaper to transport goods, which it did.
Of course, that's much easier than a train or a plane.
But the vehicles transporting, they needed drivers.
Those drivers needed jobs, so those drivers got paid.
The abundance never came though. We still work long hours.
Some of us don't make enough money to survive.
The abundance never came. It's tried to happen a bunch of
times. Basically, it's rich people
saying that abundance is coming because of what rich people do.
They already have abundance, they already have everything
they'll ever need. And for us, we have to fall back
on the same old ideas. We never know what's going to
happen after the next paycheck. Your employer could fire you.
No matter how secure you think you are, your employer could
just pull the plug on you. They might give you a little bit
of notice, but also you don't know how the financials are
doing at your company unless you're in that department.
Case in point, recently I was hired on as a contract worker.
I had a three month contract with the company.
After 2 1/2 months, the company said hey, we ran out of money.
We did 2 giant acquisitions. Everybody that's a contractor is
not a contractor anymore. So I didn't have that extra half
a month to work. And after that it was a
contractor to hire position. So now they're not going to hire
me full time because of that. You never know what's going to
happen and because of things like that, I need your support.
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What do you think of this? Do you think there's going to be
over abundance with robo taxis? You're still going to need money
to do all the things that you need to do.
You're still going to need to eat food.
You'll be able to, of course. You'll still be able to own a
car, you'll be able to own a home.
But if the price is so expensive for you where you live, there
might be time to think about living someplace else, someplace
with a lower threshold to buy a home.
There are plenty of places outside of the United States
that are much cheaper than the United States.
I mean, if you go to the grocery store and you have one bag of
groceries and it cost $200, that's a problem.
And if this abundance is a promise that Elon Musk and the
ultra mega wealthy can predict and they can actually make this
promise come true, that's great. It's never happened in the past
and it will never happen. How many thousands of years have
humans been humans? The rich people get richer and
the poor people stay poor. Sometimes there's a nice middle
class some places all over the world, there is a nice middle
class in the United States right now, there's not really a middle
class anymore. You can't have a regular nine to
five job and feed a family of four.
So if you have two kids, two parents and you may have a dog,
might have a cat, white pick a fence, the American dream, you
know, you can have that big house.
You could buy a house with that wage and also buy a car and also
go on vacation and have some time off.
That doesn't exist anymore. You have to have a side hustle
and your side hustles have to have side hustles just to get
by. You can't just have one person
making the money anymore. You have to have two people in
the household making money, and that's just the normal life of a
normal person. I'm not saying some people are
outside of that, because of course there are.
There's some people that make a bunch of money and live in a
place where it doesn't cost as much.
But for the most of us, most people here, the abundance,
according to these experts, is not going to come.
But if it does, that's great. That's great.
Maybe it's another bubble. Maybe people are going to start
making a bunch of money. But also remember that Elon Musk
says a lot of things. And I'm here as the podcaster,
as the podcast about Elon Musk, the original Elon Musk podcast.
Take everything he says with a grain of salt because I know
I've been covering him for almost 10 years now.
FSD, Remember when that was going to happen?
Almost a decade ago and it still hasn't happened.
And not actual FSD. It's a still driver assist.
So remember, when he says something, don't take it to
heart, just remember it's a great idea.
He has some great ideas, and eventually maybe it might
happen, but the overabundance of power, overabundance of food,
overabundance of wealth, take it all with a grain of salt.
So that's it for today. Everybody take care of
yourselves and each other, and I'll see you in the next one.