For years, the technology sector has been obsessed with the concept of “the Singularity,” that hypothetical point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.
Lately, Elon Musk has pivoted the conversation toward a different, perhaps more jarring, endpoint: Absolute Abundance. Musk isn’t just talking about better gadgets or faster rockets; he is predicting a fundamental decoupling of human survival from the concept of labor.
In his vision, we aren’t just moving toward a world of robots; we are moving toward a world where the very concept of cost evaporates, making money as we know it an obsolete database for a defunct era.
Let’s talk about Musk’s vision for the future. Then we’ll close with my Product of the Week, a new EV charger that addresses one of the big problems with home charging multiple EVs.
The Vision: From Scarcity to Universal High Income
At the heart of Musk’s prophecy is the marriage of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and advanced robotics — specifically the Tesla Optimus humanoid. Musk argues that once you have a machine that can perform any task a human can, the cost of goods and services collapses to the cost of the raw materials and the energy required to power the bot. He describes this as a shift from Universal Basic Income (UBI) to Universal High Income (UHI).
While UBI is often discussed as a “floor” to prevent starvation in an automated world, Musk’s UHI envisions a “ceiling-less” society where everyone has access to a lavish standard of living because there is no labor shortage to limit production.
The Ultimate Gamble: Should You Stop Saving?
In a recent appearance on the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast, Musk dropped a financial bombshell: he recommended that people stop “squirreling money away” for retirement. According to Musk, if AI can produce everything, the traditional concept of a nest egg becomes irrelevant.
He argues automation could drive productivity up so sharply that many goods and services would become far cheaper, creating powerful deflationary pressure. Is this wise or very, very foolish? For the average person, following this advice today is arguably extremely risky:
- Transition Gap: Musk admits the transition will be “bumpy.” If your retirement hits during that bumpy decade before the robots have fixed everything, and you have no savings, you are destitute.
- Ownership Problem: Currently, the bots are owned by corporations rather than the public. Without a massive political shift to redistribute that wealth, abundance may stay locked behind a paywall.
- Trillionaire Bias: It is easy for the world’s richest man — with a net worth of hundreds of billions — to say money doesn’t matter. For everyone else, money is still the only thing that pays for insulin and rent.
The Timeline: How Far Is Forever Away?
Musk is notoriously aggressive with timelines. His latest projections suggest AI will exceed collective human intelligence by 2030. He expects Optimus to be in wide use by 2027 to 2029.
If these milestones hold, we are looking at the “Era of Abundance” manifesting between 2040 and 2045. This isn’t a “century away” problem; it’s a “mid-career transition” problem for today’s workforce.
Irony of the Rich: Why the World’s Wealthiest Man Wants a Wageless World
There is a profound irony in Musk — a man who recently fought for a massive Tesla pay package — advocating for a world without currency. Musk views money simply as a “database for labor allocation.”
By automating all labor, Musk effectively renders his own massive bank account a relic. In his view, the true currency of the future isn’t the dollar — it’s energy. Once AI and robots can mine materials and manufacture chips autonomously, the “energy loop” closes, and the need for a monetary medium disappears.
Political and Economic Rebirth
If money dies, what replaces it? This future doesn’t fit into 20th-century buckets:
- Post-Scarcity Capitalism: Initially, the owners of the bots will see wealth explode.
- A New “Ism”: Eventually, if goods are effectively free, the “state” (if it still exists) would move toward Universal Basic Services (UBS). Instead of a check, you get a house, a bot, and food as a birthright.
- What Happens to the Wealthy? They lose their primary lever of power: scarcity. When everyone is “rich,” influence shifts from financial capital to social and intellectual capital.
Crisis of Meaning: A Day in the Life
The most dangerous part of Musk’s future isn’t poverty; it’s purpose. Sociologists warn that without struggle, we face an existential vacuum.
2045: A Day in the Life
You wake up when you’re rested. Your home — built by robots and powered by ubiquitous solar — maintains a perfect climate at zero cost. You don’t go to work. Instead, you might spend the morning collaborating with an AI on a passion project or engaging in “village work” mentoring or gardening — not because you have to, but for the human connection. Is it worth living in? For those who find joy in creating, it’s utopia.
For those whose identity is tied to “winning” a financial hierarchy, it may feel like a velvet prison. Ironically, I think Musk would hate living in the world he is anticipating.
Reality Check: Preparation
The likelihood of this outcome depends on solving three bottlenecks: energy, global regulation, and the “alignment” problem (ensuring AI shares human values). To prepare, don’t just stop saving. Instead, invest in adaptability. Learn to work with AI and figure out what you would do with your life if you never had to earn another cent.
Wrapping Up
Elon Musk’s vision of Absolute Abundance is a startling departure from dystopian tropes. He is betting that technology will solve poverty by making money and labor irrelevant.
However, his recommendation to stop saving for retirement remains a high-stakes gamble that ignores the bumpy decades of transition.
While we may eventually reach a world of Universal High Income, the bridge to that future is still being built — and for now, that bridge still requires a toll paid in traditional currency.
CleverCharge EV Charger
AI-generated image
If you own more than one electric vehicle, you’ve likely encountered the app fatigue that comes with modern ownership. Every manufacturer has its own software, and every smart charger adds another layer of complexity. Managing the state of charge for an Audi while tracking the efficiency of a Volvo often requires flipping between screens like a day trader. This week, I’m looking at a solution that finally brings some sanity to the multi-EV garage: the CleverCharge EV charger.
Utility of the OBD-II Dongle
What truly sets the CleverCharge apart from the sea of Level 2 chargers is its approach to vehicle data. Most “smart” chargers are actually quite limited; they know how much power they are pushing, but they have no idea what is happening inside the car’s battery.
CleverCharge solves this with a proprietary OBD-II dongle. This little device bridges the gap between the charger and the car’s internal computer. By plugging one of these into each vehicle in your fleet, the CleverCharge application can monitor and manage multiple EVs or plug-in hybrids simultaneously. Instead of the charger guessing the state of charge based on power draw, it receives real-time telemetry directly from the car.
Real-World Testing: Audi Meets Volvo
I’ve been putting this system through its paces using my Audi E-Tron GT and my Volvo XC-60 Recharge plug-in hybrid. One persistent frustration with PHEVs like the Volvo is that their internal apps can be slow to update. However, using the CleverCharge app with the OBD-II dongles, I found the data remarkably accurate and timely.
The real “killer feature” here is the unified management. Being able to see the exact mileage range and battery health for both the high-performance Audi and the utilitarian Volvo in a single interface is a huge quality-of-life improvement. It eliminates the guesswork and the need to juggle proprietary OEM apps just to see if you have enough juice for the morning commute.
Installation and Design
In my garage, the CleverCharge sits alongside my ChargePoint Home Flex. To be fair, the ChargePoint is the more powerful unit, capable of delivering higher amperage for faster top-offs. However, the CleverCharge wins handily on installation. It was far easier to set up — a two-screw mounting process that doesn’t require a degree in electrical engineering to get on the wall.
I also found myself preferring the physical design of the CleverCharge for one specific reason: the integrated display. While most chargers rely on a single status light that requires you to memorize a color code, the CleverCharge features a clear visual indicator. I can ascertain the state of charge with a quick glance while walking through the garage, rather than needing to pull out my phone to see where the cars stand.
Bi-Directional Barrier
A common question with new smart chargers is whether they support bi-directional charging (vehicle-to-home or vehicle-to-grid). Unfortunately, the CleverCharge — like almost every third-party charger on the market — cannot do this yet.
The bottleneck isn’t necessarily the charger hardware; it’s a chronic lack of industry standards. Bi-directional charging currently requires specialized, expensive equipment usually sold directly by the EV manufacturer due to the lack of universal protocols. Until the industry settles on a standard for sending power back through the cable, we are stuck with one-way flow for most home setups.
Pricing and Availability
The CleverCharge is priced competitively for the premium smart charger segment. The NEMA 14-50 plug-in version retails for $599, while the hardwired version, which supports higher speeds, retails for $649. You can find it directly at CleverCharge or on Amazon.
Because it effectively solves the multi-vehicle management headache while remaining one of the easiest units to install and read, the CleverCharge EV charger is my Product of the Week.
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Going back to Elon’s “birthright” instead of checks, how would this even work out? It almost seems like what he wants is from the movie In Time. In the movie, people work to receive minutes or hours to their life instead of money because the cost of everything is paid by the minutes or hours you own. Seems like what he is implementing is far from stretched. Also, if everything is given to everybody because of their birthright, would this mean that everyone around the world would be equal? The other thing is how would this work in 3rd world countries or is this what he predicts for America? If so, if a country doesn’t go with this idea, how would we pay to visit that country and for expenditures? I don’t have much in my retirement at the moment, but after reading this article, it makes me feel like it’s going to be for nothing. I AM also in school about to graduate for my Cybersecurity degree. I did this so that I could make more money and make sure that when I retire, I have a nest egg that I could survive on.