AI capex is so big that it's affecting economic statistics

Nobody is obsessed with it. People are afraid of it. And yet, what will you do? Will you renounce adopting a tool that can make your work or someone else's work faster, easier, better? It's a trap: once you've seen the possibilities you can't go back; and if you do, you'll have to compete with those who keep using the new tools. Even if you know perfectly well that in a few years the tools will make your own job useless.

Personally, however, I would find it possibly even more depressing to spend my day doing a job that has economic value only because some regulation prevents it being done more efficiently. At that point I'd rather get the money anyway and spend the day at the beach.

That's only possible if you as the worker are capturing the efficiencies that the automation provides (i.e. you get RSU's, you have an equity stake in the business as well).

Believe it or not most SWE's and white collar workers in general don't get these perks especially outside the US where most firms have made sure tech workers in general are paid "standard wages" even if they are "good".

I mean, if the state can pass a law that forces companies to employ a person instead of an LLM- then it can also pass a law that forces them to pay that person while the LLM does their job. Companies would prefer that for sure: instead of having to keep the worker and the bad performance, they could at least get the nice LLM performance.

> Personally, however, I would find it possibly even more depressing to spend my day doing a job that has economic value only because some regulation prevents it being done more efficiently.

That's true for many jobs. The only reason many people have a job is because of a variety of regulations preventing that job from being outsourced.

> At that point I'd rather get the money anyway and spend the day at the beach.

You won't get the money and spend the day at the beach; you'll starve to death.

I'm not convinced that there are that many jobs that can be effectively outsourced- locality is an important factor even for jobs that can in theory be performed fully remotely. I also don't see that many barriers to outsourcing or offshoring in general.

In any case, there's also a difference between the idea that it can be me or another person doing the same job, and maybe that person can be paid less because of their lower cost of living, but in the end they will put in the same effort as I do; and the idea that a tool can do the job effortlessly and the only reason I have to suffer over it is to justify a salary that has no reason to exist. Then, again, just force the company to pay me while allowing them to use whatever tool they want to get the job done.