Editor’s Note: This week’s elections were a clear sign of American unhappiness with the current regime. It is the first successful sign of broad resistance to the mob family level of lies and extortion, dancing while cutting jobs and support services, the misplaced pride in snatching people off of American streets, and the debilitating manliness defined by Miller, Bannon, Patel, Musk, and Trump (and Bondi).

This success will not last unless citizens keep the pressure on and for newly elected officials to deliver results. That is the only way to counter the damage to our principles and our reputation; with a honest and authentic effort.

Don’t stop.

When I was in high school, I went from the last class in speed typing on typewriters to the introduction of desktop computing.

How we work is getting ready to change again.

To get an idea of what’s coming, let’s consider what is changing in the field of war.

In early July 2025, Ukrainian robots captured Russian soldiers.

In what Ukrainian officials claim was the world’s first fully unmanned offensive combat operation, a team of drones and robots crept into Russian positions and forced entrenched soldiers to surrender without a single Ukrainian troop present.

Think of this again.

Robots replaced humans in a combat operation because it was safer, cheaper, and more effective.

Saving soldiers’ lives by replacing them with unmanned systems is a net moral good, yet the logic that governs automation isn’t going to stop there. It’s already seeping into factories, offices, and warehouses. The machine doesn’t complain, ask for overtime, or sleep. And increasingly, it doesn’t need to be told what to do.

Over the past several years, the speed and scale of automation driven by artificial intelligence is reshaping labor. We’ve seen it from Amazon warehouses to automotive plants to delivery drivers. Millions of full-time jobs and side gigs will be subject to automation.

White-collar positions, such as lawyers, financial analysts, graphic designers, and marketing coordinators, are not immune.

Unlike earlier technological shifts like the desktop computer, this wave of automation isn’t just enhancing human output, it can replace human judgment. AI has the ability to summarize, synthesize, analyze, and even “create”. Put that into the body of a robot and the potential is endless. The question is no longer “Will the robots take our jobs?” It’s “Whose will they take and where it will stop?”

We’ve been in this situation before.

Sort of.

Every major technological revolution triggered anxiety about workers being left behind. The Ford assembly line displaced craftsmen and carriage operators, yet it birthed the modern middle class. Personal computing hollowed out a number of bureaucratic and centralized roles but also launched the digital economy to every home. It’s possible, as analysts have projected, that the use of AI and robots will create a variety of new jobs in new fields.

As every home has a computer now, consider the coming wave of every home with a mobile, handy, talking robot.

The issue will be how disruptive this change will be and how quickly skills can be learned.

A call center worker can’t become a machine learning engineer overnight. A factory worker or repair driver replaced by robots may have little choice but to move to find a new opportunity with new training. The use of AI also has the potential to concentrate in certain areas like tech hubs and devastate others that do manufacturing or call center work.

No area or position is beyond reach.

So what should we do before we modernize to a point of making ourselves obsolete?

First, rethink education and workforce training. Idle hands are a danger to stability. We need a permanent national infrastructure that treats AI like the internet and electricity, available everywhere regardless of the ability to pay.

Next, we must upgrade social safety nets to match the velocity of economic change. Traditional unemployment benefits are woefully behind. They aren’t built for technological obsolescence. We will need wage insurance or universal basic income. Universal healthcare, a system much like Europe has that is untethered to employment, will be a must to allow people the flexibility to learn, grow, and be mobile.

It would be equally beneficial to move to the 4-day workweek, sharing efficiency gains from AI with the public by reducing human work hours without a reduction in pay. It will free up workers to follow more creative pursuits and be less anxious with the changes.

Tax policy will also have to evolve. If machines produce economic value without paying into Medicare, Social Security, or payroll taxes, then that revenue shortfall must be addressed by the tech bros, either by taxing capital gains at higher rates, introducing a “robot tax,” or creating AI surtaxes on corporate profits built largely on algorithms instead of employees.

These measures aren’t punitive. They will be necessary.

They’re a recognition that in a world where labor as a share of national income shrinks, a functioning government needs new ways to keep people active and happy while funding the public services that keep societies together.

It will be by our choice if we let this work transition lead to mass unemployment and unrest rather than liberation from mundane tasks. A technology policy entwined with labor policy will be the alternative DOGE movement that has been missing.

That we can go to war without a human physical presence changes everything. If we can replace human labor safely, cheaply, and efficiently on the battlefield, it can be replaced anywhere.

The biggest question is not which jobs survive, but how we choose to define work in a world remade by AI; what it really means to “make a living.”

Unless work has a purpose, unless we have a purpose, humans will continue to be treated as disposable parts by the current caliber of leadership, and the United States will be the next battlefield casualty.

This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:

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Serenity, patience, acceptance, connection, service, respect. As the subject of this issue is the future of work, it’s fitting to show these ageless legends of Japan, finding happiness in their daily work routines. Such should be the essential meaning of working. Having a purpose. Finding a purpose.

This beautiful piece reminds me of our dear friend Koko who left us last year. She worked two jobs to stay busy, and it wasn’t for the money. She liked being around people and keeping her mind occupied. It wasn’t about going to work for her. It was more about seeing old friends and making new ones.

Such is the proper goal to make work more than just a means of compensation.

Dealing with three young adults at home and hundreds more at work, I am well attuned to the differences in costs and expectations from my time to theirs.

I got married in my 20s and didn’t buy a home until we were around 30. While we continue to pay on a mortgage, the home has almost tripled in value. That might be good for building equity and access to credit, but it also means higher starting costs for the next generation.

We can either have good public policy that supports stable jobs and living wages, or continue leaving it to a free market that results in 1% of the population capturing over 50% of the created wealth.

That is dangerously unstable.

Read, learn, and know the side you are supporting.

And Now….

Hard to believe November is here. Let the change of seasons and daylight hours give time for contemplation. Don’t let this time slip by without giving thanks to those who got us to where we are.

Keep up your reading habit. Continue to practice your gratefulness.

Always strive to be a good human.