Elon Musk says saving for retirement ‘won’t matter’ in 10 or 20 years. Here’s why that’s dangerous advice

Elon Musk has erstwhile again ignited discourse; this clip implicit thing astir radical dainty arsenic foundational to fiscal security: status savings.

On a caller occurrence of the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast, Business Insider reports, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO argued that the accepted thought of redeeming for status could go “irrelevant” successful the adjacent decennary oregon 2 acknowledgment to advances successful artificial quality (AI), robotics and vigor technologies. He claims these volition usher successful a caller epoch of abundance.

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Musk paints a bold, but fanciful, picture: 1 wherever machines grip astir work, goods and services are plentiful and cheap, wellness attraction and acquisition are freely accessible and a alleged "universal precocious income” ensures everyone’s basal needs are met. In that future, Musk says, worrying astir squirreling wealth distant for status “won’t matter.” But earlier you broadside with the world’s richest entrepreneur and wantonness your 401(k), there’s an important world cheque to consider.

Musk’s thesis hinges connected an utmost imaginativeness of technological transformation; 1 successful which AI, robotics and different innovations volition boost productivity truthful dramatically that scarcity — the economical unit that underpins money, enactment and redeeming — volition efficaciously vanish.

In specified a world, helium argues, accepted status readying whitethorn suffer its relevance.

That’s an optimistic and highly speculative thought of the future. Musk said helium imagines the modulation could beryllium “bumpy,” perchance sparking societal unrest and adjacent a situation of meaning arsenic accepted enactment becomes little indispensable (1).

It’s important to enactment that Musk isn’t offering idiosyncratic concern proposal successful the accepted sense. He’s describing a theoretical aboriginal economy. Yet his power means galore radical could construe his comments arsenic a greenish airy to halt redeeming altogether — particularly younger workers inactive successful the aboriginal stages of gathering fiscal security.

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Unlike Musk, astir Americans don’t person billion-dollar information nets if the aboriginal doesn’t unfold arsenic predicted. For many, status savings are acold from irrelevant. In fact, they’re critically insufficient.