My dears, I have bad news for all of you who think that security is about being hardworking, quiet, and going to work. Homer Simpson is dead. Not the yellow one from the cartoon, but the economic model that has been sold to us for 50 years. The model where you are average, you do an average job, you have an average salary, but you still afford a house, two cars, and a dog. This world has disappeared faster than the integrity of our politicians. And it's AI's fault.
My dears, I have bad news for all of you who think that the pinnacle of life's success is... permanent contract, vacation pay and those thirty minutes for lunch. I have news for all of you who believe that the state will take care of you when you are old and disabled. This world is dead. We buried it, but they haven't told you that yet on Dnevnik because they are too busy reporting on which union is more offended today. AI is here and changing the world.
I'm talking about Homer SimpsonNot that yellow character who swallows donuts, but about the economic model, which has been sold to us for half a century. A model where you are average, you do average work in a factory or office, you are stupid as hell, but you still have a big house with a garden, two cars, three children and a wife.
Look around you. If you are average today – that is, if you are a Slovenian “Homer” – you don’t have a house. You have a 30-year mortgage. two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Ljubljana and a used Renault Megane. Why? Because the industrial age, which allowed for comfortable mediocrity, has finally said "goodbye."
1. School prepared you for an assembly line that no longer exists
Our school system is brilliant. ...if you live in 1850. It was created for a factory. To be quiet, to obey the bell, to learn to repeat the same movements, and not to ask too many questions.They prepared you to be replaceable wheels.
The problem is that we are in the year 2025. Factories are run by robots that don't need union trips or sick leave. Offices are being taken over by artificial intelligence that writes better contracts, does better analysis, and translates text faster than any secretary in the public administration.
If your work can be described in three bullet points, it will be tomorrow performed ChatGPT and 357 other AI models. Free. And you will be waiting at the institute with your diplomas in hand and wondering why the state is not doing anything. Irony? The state can't even take care of itself, let alone you..
2. The age of mediocrity is over: You are either an elite or a social problem
In the industrial age, it was Gaussian curve. Most people were in the middle – average job, average salary. Being average was okay. It was safe.
In the digital age, my dears, it is true “Power Law”. Winner takes all. Look at Google. Look at Luka Dončić. Look at that top mechanic I already wrote about – that “doctor of motor science” that everyone takes their cars to because the official repair shops have no idea.. He's in the top 10 %. He sets the price.
Everyone else? Everyone else is replaceable. If you are not in the top 10 % in your niche today – whether it is laying tiles, programming or writing nonsense on Twitter – your value is falling towards zero. The leveller so beloved by our leftists no longer exists in the nature of economics. There are only two castes: those who master algorithms and create added value, and those who will be replaced by algorithms.
3. Salary is a drug for the poor
The most tragic fixation is the fixation on salary. Salary is compensation for average time and average effort. And as AI does average things better and cheaper, salaries will fall in real terms.
The rich don't get paid. The rich get paid. “fees” (payment for impact) and "rent" (dividends, rents). While you are fighting for a 5 % raise, someone else is building intellectual property, databases, media and code. These are the new “walls”. Not that real estate on Krk, but digital assets that you can manage from Dubai or from Krtina, if you have good internet.
And here we come to our virtuous prime minister and his "reforms". Instead of encouraging those who who are in the top 10 % and are pulling the cart forward, we tax them so we can fund dysfunctional systemsThe Prime Minister does not understand that in the digital world, capital has no homeland. A capable engineer or doctor will pack his bags and go where he is appreciated, not where he is treated like a cash cow to fund "studies about nothing."AI is only accelerating this.
4. The illusion of safety in “Butale”
Slovenia He's acting like that uncle who still uses a fax machine and complains that no one writes back to him. We have healthcare that is “free,” but you pay thousands of euros a year for it, and then you wait 435 days per reviewto tell you that you are sick. We have a pension system that is mathematically bankrupt, but we pretend that "everything will be fine".
Waiting for the state to fix your life is a utopia. It is a path to poverty. The only real security is to become indispensableThat your knowledge, your "brand" and your ability to solve problems go beyond the borders of this small subalpine country.
What do you have left?
Stop being Homer Simpson. Stop dreaming about security, because it doesn't exist. Instead of investing in walls and waiting for retirement, invest in your head. Become the “Dr. of Motorcycle Science” in your field. Specialize. Be so good that they can't ignore you and not tax you (at least not everything).
The world is divided into those who will control AI and those who will be controlled by it. AI managed. To those who will live off their knowledge, and those who will live off a universal basic income that will be just high enough to keep you from starving, and just low enough to keep you quiet.
The choice is yours. But depending on who you vote for, I'm afraid most of you would rather wait in line for a mortadella sandwich, like baking your own bread.
Good luck in the new reality. You'll need a helmet and a Trojan donut in hand.
