The picture above is associated with a column by Tim Higgins. His column appeared in The Wall Street Journal on January 20, 2026. Online, the title of Higgins' column read this way: "Why The Tech World Thinks The American Dream Is Dying." The title on the print version, I suggest, was a little more inflammatory:
Tech World Says Get Rich Now, Or Else
I am reacting to that print version headline.
The essence of what Higgins is saying is that there is a good argument, which must be taken seriously, that "the current artificial intelligence boom will be the last chance to get rich before artificial intelligence makes money essentially worthless."
Presumably, those who are already rich, and the "tech bros" who are getting rich on the current A.I. boom, will be just fine. However, what about the rest of us poor schmucks? Well, the implicit lesson is found in that print version headline. You had better get rich now - or else! The door on "rich" is closing!
This idea, of course, is contrary to what we have all been told from time immemorial. Our faith, largely justified by past experience, too, is that new technologies ultimately make everyone better off. That "rising tide" we have always heard about will lift all boats.
Higgins doesn't, completely, say that there is going to be a fundamental change. But he takes that headline I quoted pretty seriously. Here is how he ends his column, citing to a tech entrepreneur who predicted, last year, that "the mother of all tech booms is coming." Here is what he said, by way of advice, just following that quote:
Get Some While You Can
I am somewhat dubious about the value of the A.I. developments that are driving massive investments right at the moment - and I don't necessarily believe that there is no stopping A.I.. The massive (and negative) impacts that giant data centers are having on the natural environment, the environment that sustains all life on the planet, makes me think that this may be a "pride goeth before a fall" moment.
However, let's assume that A.I. will proceed to "take over" our lives, making everyone almost totally dependent on it, and upon the infrastructure that makes it all possible. If that might turn out to be true, it probably does make sense to pay some attention to Higgins' warning.
Upon reading Higgins' column, and thinking about the question, I had two immediate reactions. First, being "rich" doesn't mean that a person's life is going to be either "better" or more satisfying. Being "poor" is a different story. If I don't get "rich," I am not going to pout. If A.I. makes us "poor," however, so my grandkids won't get medical care, a good education, or enough to eat - and if the advent of A.I. means that my family members and all our friends won't have a roof over their heads (all these things going along with being "poor"), I am going to be very upset.
In fact, I think that what Higgins is suggesting is that missing the A.I. boom will, essentially, make huge numbers of people truly "poor," and that talking about how missing the A.I. boon might foreclose a person's chance to be "rich" is just trying to put a positive spin on things. If it does turn out to be true that if you don't end up being "rich" then you are going to be "poor," and plunged into poverty, then we ought to be doing something to stop what's happening, as opposed to trying to figure out how to become individually "rich."
This brings up the second thought I had. Higgins column focuses on the "individual." The column doesn't provide any sense of our collective ability, perhaps, to make everyone "rich." In truth, we are not just a collection of individuals, we are "in this together." If A.I. is going to increase productivity, and cut costs, and produce economic benefits, then society at large, which includes all of us, should be the beneficiary.
In order to make that idea work out in real life, of course, those who are not likely to become individually rich need to get organized, and start making rules that will insure that everyone benefits from the new technologies that are coming.
That means "politics." That means, to alter the headline I have quoted, that the following admonition is the advice we need to follow:
Get Organized Now, Or Else!
Image Credit:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!