The idea of having a "secure" job in 2026 is nothing short of laughable. Humans crave certainty in 4 main aspects of life -
- Stable income
- Shelter
- Community
- Identity
If one of these 4 pillars fall, mental health deteriorates fast:
Stable Income - When Klarna's AI handles the work of 700 agents, those aren't just jobs lost - it's 700 families who can no longer predict next months rent. The gig economy already showed us precarious income. AI makes it exponential.
Shelter - Housing costs have outpaced wages for decades. The median age of US homebuyers has rocketed from 39 in 2008 to 59 years old today - nearly 60 before owning a home is ridiculous. Now add mass unemployment. The 30 year mortgage assumes 30 years of stable employment ahead of you - a concept that's becoming extinct. A 59 year old first time buyer has maybe 10-15 years working left, if they're lucky. When AI eliminates their income halfway through that mortgage, What happens to shelter then?
Community - Work isn't just income - it's where we meet people, build relationships, find belonging. Remote work started isolation. AI hammers it home.
Identity - "What do you do?" is the second question we ask after someone's name. When millions of people can't answer that question anymore, Who are they? What will they do with their life?
The evidence is concrete. Klarna replaced 700 customer service agents with AI chatbots in 2024. Dropbox cut 500 employees citing AI making roles redundant. In May 2023, companies reported 3,900 job cuts specifically due to AI - the first time it was tracked as a distinct cause. Goldman Sachs estimates AI could automate 300 million full-time jobs globally. This wave is only just beginning.
The disappearance of jobs as we know it is becoming abundantly clear throughout society. Millennials and older Gen-zs were brought up to believe that if you study hard, do well at school and go to university then you would be able to have the life you dreamt of. A big house with an attractive partner and a couple of nice cars outside was all yours. All you had to do was get a degree.
Of course sooner or later one by one people started to realise this was no longer true. The share of US unemployed workers with four-year degrees has nearly tripled since 1995 - from around 9% to over 25% today. The degree that was supposed to guarantee security now guarantees nothing. This is a new phenomenon and yet to become common consensus but it's not far away. The repercussions are becoming too hard to ignore.
Before the industrial era nobody was employed. Full time employment was literally unheard of. As William Bridges once said, "Before 1800 - and long after in many cases - job always referred to some particular task or undertaking, never to a role or position in an organisation... Between 1700 and 1890, the Oxford English Dictionary finds many uses of terms like job-coachman, job-doctor, and job-gardner all referring to people hired on a one-time basis. Job work (another frequent term) was occasional work, not regular employment."
It's very possible we will return to a similar way of life in the AI age, Whilst opportunity will always be available for those who search for it, the disruption that's coming will be unprecedented. We as humans have never gone through such a reality altering transition. Life as we've known it will cease to exist.
Why This Time is Different
"But wait," you might think, "haven't we heard this before? People panicked about tractors replacing farm workers, assembly lines replacing craftsmen, computers replacing typists. We adapted, we always adapt"
This time is fundamentally different and here's why.
Previous waves of automation replaced physical labor. Tractors took over plowing fields. Factory machines took over assembly work. These innovations displaced manual workers, yes - but they also created a clear path forward: the move into cognitive work - Get an education. Work with your mind instead of your hands. The white- collar job became the safe haven.
AI eliminates that haven entirely. It's not coming for your limbs - it's coming for your brain. The lawyer reviewing contracts, the analyst building spreadsheets, the programmer writing code, the designer creating graphics - these were suppose to be automation - proof careers. They're now the most vulnerable.
The speed of change is unprecedented. The Industrial Revolution unfolded over generations. Workers had time to retrain. Their children could prepare for different careers. AI is compressing that timeline from decades into years. A customer service rep laid off today doesn't have 20 years to learn a new profession. They have rent due at the start of the month.
Most critically, there's no obvious "next tier" to climb to. When farming jobs disappeared people moved to factories. When factory jobs declined, people moved to white collar offices. When AI takes the office jobs... Where exactly do hundreds of millions of workers go?
This isn't speculation. Mckinsey projects 12 million occupational shifts in the US alone by 2030 due to generative AI. Developers using AI assistants already complete tasks 55% faster - meaning fewer developers are needed for the same output.
Early crypto Investor Murad said - "AI will cause hundreds of millions of people to lose their jobs, their wealth and their income. But what's more important - is that all those people will lose their identity, their status, their meaning, their sense of self-worth."
The 4 Pillars that held society together - stable income, shelter, community, identity - are cracking simultaneously, When previous economic disruptions hit, at least some pillars remained standing. The Great Depression destroyed income but left community in tact. The 2008 crash devastated shelter but people kept their identities through work. AI threatens all four at once.
We're already living through the aftermath of isolation triggered by Covid-19. Remote work severed community ties. Housing became unaffordable for an entire generation. Now AI has arrived to finish the job, eliminating income and identity in one algorithmic sweep.
Society is breaking down in real time. AI will be the spark that makes it explode. The question isn't whether this transition is coming - It's whether we'll acknowledge it before the collapse is irreversible.
Article Written by: @InvestorMM_
Credit:
Quote Sources: @MustStopMurad
Chart sources: @MustStopMurad ,@Hedgeye
Historical reference: William Bridges, "job Shift"
SPX6900 Magazine is an independent third-party publication. References to assets, ideas, projects, or individuals are not endorsements. All content reflects opinion only and is provided for informational purposes, not as instruction or financial advice. Any decisions made based on this article are entirely your own responsibility
