Ok so I’m not very well versed in economics or the economy. But I’ve noticed that the cost of things that people need like electricity, housing, water, food, gas are rising exponentially while wages are remaining fairly stagnant. So my question is what happens if the cost of these things rise so much that people start being priced out to where they can no longer afford to have these things? Can that even happen?

Edit: I’d also like to bring up the fact that the job market is also becoming more complicated. So in my experience it seems like finding a job that pays enough to afford basic needs is becoming hard to find. Also I want to stress that this is from my perspective as a 29F from Texas.

Jobs growth is “essentially zero” outside healthcare

Inflation is out of control: “Two wars need to end before we get any relief

Global wave of selling as traders flee tech stocks

I mean seriously, why are economists and the news acting like cpi and pce being high are surprising?

My rent is being raised 10% next year, my tuition gets raised 5-10% per year, my utilities significantly climb every year, food and energy are stupidly high (and no I’m not stripping them because those are my most common expenses).

No crap inflation is running hot!!

Please explain to me like I’m 5

I can’t stop thinking about this and I don’t understand how the math works out.

AI keeps improving. The pitch is that eventually it’ll do almost anything a human can do. Great. But here’s what I’m stuck on: who is all of this for?

Rich companies are the ones building AI, and rich people/companies are the ones who can afford to use it. They’re building it to solve problems — including human problems. But which humans? If AI replaces the regular person’s job, that person has no income. So how are they supposed to buy the products and services AI makes? The customer base just... disappears?

It feels like AI is being built by a small group, for that same small group. Everyone else gets to play with the free version for fun — until they can’t afford even that.

The healthcare example is the one that really gets me. Everyone says AI will save lives, cure diseases, make diagnosis cheap. Amazing. But if those same people lost their jobs to automation, they can’t pay for the treatment anyway. So we invent the cure and then price out the people who need it? What was the point?

So genuinely — who is this all for? Is there an actual answer to this, or are we just assuming it’ll work itself out?