Another serious flaw with the modern American economy is that too much of our money is spent betting on whatever lottery ticket dream we are sold will grant the highest returns. For too long, we have been investing in software companies like Meta hoping for unicorn returns, paying no attention to the fact that many of these companies do little to materially improve the real world we live in, while our communities and infrastructure fall into disrepair. Who wants to invest in a lower-margin construction company, when there is a chance company some tech company X might come up with an addictive imaginary widget on our phone that has a marginal cost of almost nothing after the first one is built.

Now, all this new hardware we're building is powering AI that is only proven to improve the quality of our software, and will likely displace many of the middle class "white collar" jobs we have left. Buckle up boys, we are in for a bumpy ride.