Comment by nickpp
4 days ago
> abundance. For those that own stuff and no longer have to pay for other people to work for them.
Why are you saying that? Anybody working for a living (but saving money) can invest in AI stocks or ETFs and partake in that potential abundance. Robinhood accounts are free for all.
> Anybody working for a living
> (but saving money)
These two are already difficult or impossible for many people. Especially a big chunk of USAmericans have been living paycheck to paycheck for a long time now, often taking multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
And then to gamble it on a speculative market, whose value does not correlate with its performance (see e.g. Tesla, compare its sales / market share with its market value compared to other car manufacturers). That's bad advice. And for an individual, you'd only benefit a fraction from what the big shareholders etc earn. Investing is a secondary market.
> a big chunk of USAmericans have been living paycheck to paycheck
That doesn't mean they are poor, just poor with their money. Saving is a skill that needs to be learned.
> That's bad advice.
No. Not investing, when the S&P500 index had a 6% inflation-adjusted annual historical return over the last 100 years - is bad advice. Not hedging the arrival of an AGI that you think can replace you - is bad advice.
It’s not an utopian idea to try as a society to hedge and distribute returns to all members. From a human resource perspective, it is insane (ie. costly and inefficient) to put it on the shoulders of each individual. But that’s where we are (almost; happy to live in a country with still some public services like unified healthcare and retirement funds).
Yes, you can drill your own well to have water in a society, for some. Or, you come up with the unheard-of idea of public utilities, so people can simply open a tap and enjoy. In some regions, even drink it. Personally, growing up in a lucky place like that, I have a hard time imagining to ever live in a place that required me to buy bottled water.
Yes, you can demand each member of society to learn about ETFs. Personally, I enjoy every part of life where complexity is being dealt with for me; I wouldn’t survive a day without that collaboration.
We have a choice to design society, like we have a choice to design computer systems.
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...which almost everybody agrees is a bubble, wondering not if, but when it will burst.
Investing in AI companies is just about the last piece of advice I'd give someone who's struggling financially.
The billionaires will largely be fine. They hedge their bets and have plenty of spare assets on the side. Little guy investors? Not so much. They'll go from worrying about their retirement plan to worrying about becoming homeless.