Welcome to the terminal stage of consumer capitalism, where the core engine , waged labor in exchange for production, consumption, and taxation
It is breaking down due to the automation of human toil.
And without toil, there is no wage, no mass consumption, and no broad-based taxation to fund the state or support debt service.
No mortgages
The collapse of the wage-consumption-tax loop that sustained the post-WWII model of growth. Gone
As AI and robotics replace labor across white- and blue-collar domains, we’re entering a world where:
•Human labor is no longer needed at scale.
•Wage income collapses, especially for the middle class.
•Consumption shrinks, not because needs vanish, but because purchasing power does.
•Tax receipts implode, as governments lose the broad base they once taxed to fund infrastructure, services, and welfare.
•Debt systems default, as people can no longer service mortgages or personal loans—because income no longer flows predictably.
Asset prices collapse
The end of industrial-era capitalism and the beginning of something else. But what replaces it?
And what do humans do once they fully realise the implications ?
Because this period we are in —— is the calm before the storm
It is breaking down due to the automation of human toil.
And without toil, there is no wage, no mass consumption, and no broad-based taxation to fund the state or support debt service.
No mortgages
The collapse of the wage-consumption-tax loop that sustained the post-WWII model of growth. Gone
As AI and robotics replace labor across white- and blue-collar domains, we’re entering a world where:
•Human labor is no longer needed at scale.
•Wage income collapses, especially for the middle class.
•Consumption shrinks, not because needs vanish, but because purchasing power does.
•Tax receipts implode, as governments lose the broad base they once taxed to fund infrastructure, services, and welfare.
•Debt systems default, as people can no longer service mortgages or personal loans—because income no longer flows predictably.
Asset prices collapse
The end of industrial-era capitalism and the beginning of something else. But what replaces it?
And what do humans do once they fully realise the implications ?
Because this period we are in —— is the calm before the storm
1. Resilient Thriftiness: The Return of Autarky
Yes—one likely response is a return to localized, small-scale resilience. The ability to:
•Grow your own food.
•Generate your own power.
•Fix, build, and repurpose instead of buy.
•Form mutual aid communities not governed by money but by reciprocity and necessity. Shelter in exchange for work
It’s not so much regression as it is adaptive re-localization. You’re not going back to the past, you’re reactivating dormant capacities in a high-tech context but humans have at least done it before .
A decentralized survival economy.
Yes—one likely response is a return to localized, small-scale resilience. The ability to:
•Grow your own food.
•Generate your own power.
•Fix, build, and repurpose instead of buy.
•Form mutual aid communities not governed by money but by reciprocity and necessity. Shelter in exchange for work
It’s not so much regression as it is adaptive re-localization. You’re not going back to the past, you’re reactivating dormant capacities in a high-tech context but humans have at least done it before .
A decentralized survival economy.
2. Post-Wage Value Systems
If work no longer provides identity or income, society must replace it with:
•Purpose not tied to earning ? .
•Systems of resource distribution not tied to productivity.?
•Possibly UBI or machine-generated public goods—but only if the political elite cedes power (which is unlikely without rupture/ rapture )
If work no longer provides identity or income, society must replace it with:
•Purpose not tied to earning ? .
•Systems of resource distribution not tied to productivity.?
•Possibly UBI or machine-generated public goods—but only if the political elite cedes power (which is unlikely without rupture/ rapture )
3. Collapse → Reformation
There will be pain. Those in mortgage debt serfdom, as I noted, will find that the contracts they signed depended on a wage system that no longer exists. When that unwinds:
•Housing bubbles collapse.
•Asset values become unstable.
•States attempt to prop it up with debt until sovereign default or inflation hits.
What emerges will likely be networked micro-economies—skills-based, gift-based, partially automated, with barter, token systems, or local ledgers filling the gap. Think neo-agrarian tech enclaves or post-industrial monasteries—places of self-sufficiency, knowledge retention, and high-survival density.
There will be pain. Those in mortgage debt serfdom, as I noted, will find that the contracts they signed depended on a wage system that no longer exists. When that unwinds:
•Housing bubbles collapse.
•Asset values become unstable.
•States attempt to prop it up with debt until sovereign default or inflation hits.
What emerges will likely be networked micro-economies—skills-based, gift-based, partially automated, with barter, token systems, or local ledgers filling the gap. Think neo-agrarian tech enclaves or post-industrial monasteries—places of self-sufficiency, knowledge retention, and high-survival density.
4/ And Capitalism?
What you called “capitalism”—based on labor producing surplus, buying goods, paying taxes—dies here. What gives it life wanes .
What might survive is a new machine-based capitalism where:
•Machines produce.
•Algorithms distribute.
•Ownership of machines is the new class divide.
Unless ownership is socialized, or radically redistributed, we get hyper-oligarchy: a few own the robots, the rest serve via digital feudalism, universal credits, or rebellion.
And it happens very quickly
What you called “capitalism”—based on labor producing surplus, buying goods, paying taxes—dies here. What gives it life wanes .
What might survive is a new machine-based capitalism where:
•Machines produce.
•Algorithms distribute.
•Ownership of machines is the new class divide.
Unless ownership is socialized, or radically redistributed, we get hyper-oligarchy: a few own the robots, the rest serve via digital feudalism, universal credits, or rebellion.
And it happens very quickly
5/The resilient, thrifty, order-creating individual becomes the core archetype again.
He or she is antifragile in a system where state and market become unstable.
That person:
•Grows food.
•Builds shelter.
•Uses tech selectively.
•Forms tight local bonds.
•No longer relies on wages.
•No longer believes in the permanence of centralized institutions.
You’ve circled back to Thriftville—but now it’s built with solar panels, decentralized AI, and off-grid systems. It’s ancient in ethic, modern in tools.
He or she is antifragile in a system where state and market become unstable.
That person:
•Grows food.
•Builds shelter.
•Uses tech selectively.
•Forms tight local bonds.
•No longer relies on wages.
•No longer believes in the permanence of centralized institutions.
You’ve circled back to Thriftville—but now it’s built with solar panels, decentralized AI, and off-grid systems. It’s ancient in ethic, modern in tools.
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