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I can't remember when I realized this, but I want to say it was less than five or ten years ago. Scared the crap out of me then, and still does whenever I think about it.
Companies only hire people because they can't do all the work themselves.
If every founder had 10,000 hands and brains they could assign to different tasks, there would be a minuscule fraction of the jobs we have today.
If you think about this for more than a few minutes, it starts to really mess with you, and you'll likely head down the same path I did.
(Nodding) Oh, I guess that's true...I guess somebody who can do all the work themselves wouldn't need to hire anybody...
(Logical) And I guess they shouldn't be required to hire people that they don't need. That would be weird...
(Quizzical) But aren't we telling millions of kids in high school and college that there are—and always will be—jobs waiting for them if they work hard?
(Nervous) So...who's actually guaranteeing that those jobs are there? Whose job is it to create jobs?
(Panic) Oh shit. Nobody. It's nobody's job to create jobs.
In other words, the only reason the current labor market (and our economy that's based on it) exist at all is because there's a group of founders/owners who need lots of help producing their goods and services.
They are not required by anyone to hire me or you to help them if they don't need that help. And the exact moment they can do the work themselves, they will, and not a second after.
So where does AI sit in all of this?
Everyone's currently obsessed with how much money is being spent/wasted on AI, as if it's the dumbest use of money ever.
But when you look at it in this "returning to natural state of doing their own work" framing, it's not stupid at all.
Don't think of it as them hiring AI instead of hiring people. Think of it as them just doing the work themselves.
I sent my army of researchers to go figure out how much money is spent on knowledge work compensation in a year. The numbers are ridiculous. It's around $10 trillion in the US and $70 trillion worldwide.
That's annually.
As owners/founders, investing a few tens of trillions to be able to "just do it myself" suddenly looks pretty smart.
So basically, this entire pitch to young people that there will always be jobs after you graduate—which I somehow lived my entire life thinking was a fucking Human Law of Physics—is actually just a temporary side effect of early civilizations with bad technology.
Big-L Labor...a side effect.
Our whole ass economy that's based on us spending money earned by doing that labor...a side effect.
What the actual hell. I've known this for years now, but it stuns me every time I think about it.
Hopefully you can use this frame to better understand both AI and the forces that are pushing it. And as a push to start thinking about what comes after.
Notes
I am aware that there are some corporations, companies, and definitely startups that like working with people and growing people. But that's not really the question. The question is, are there enough companies that are like that? Who would hire people that they don't actually need? And are there enough of those to sustain a $70 trillion workforce that's powering our economy? I think the answer is no.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS): Official U.S. government wage data covering millions of establishments. Found ~100M knowledge workers (38-42% of workforce), with total U.S. labor compensation at $13.5T annually. Tech sector median: $104,556; Healthcare practitioners: $83,090.
OECD Average Wages: International wage comparisons across developed economies. Switzerland leads at $115K average, Denmark $84K, Germany $64K. Provides the basis for global knowledge worker estimates.
ILO Global Wage Report 2024-25: United Nations labor agency data on worldwide compensation. Estimates 1+ billion global knowledge workers with significant regional variation ($28K-$150K depending on country).
Dice Tech Salary Report 2025: U.S. technology sector salaries. Found tech average of $112,521 with only +1.2% YoY growth in 2024, but 23% annual tech sector wage inflation overall. Senior engineers: $130K-$164K.
Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide: Professional staffing firm data. Key finding: AI/ML roles command 30-50% premium over non-AI positions. AI Architects averaging $204,463; ML Engineers at $197,170.
Upwork Research Institute: Freelance knowledge worker data from 3,000 survey respondents. Found 28% of U.S. knowledge workers (~20M) are freelancers, generating $1.5 trillion annually.
Related post: The End of Work—the ideal number of employees is zero. Companies only hire because they have to, not because they want to.
Related post: Business AI Is the Automation of Intelligence Tasks—business AI is best understood as a way to automate intelligence tasks, not as a chatbot or assistant.
Related video: How All My Projects Fit Together—a deep dive into how Substrate, Fabric, Telos, Daemon, and Human 3.0 work together.
Related project: Human 3.0—a framework for becoming a highly aware and competent individual living a purposeful life.
Related post: Building a Personal AI Infrastructure (PAI)—how I built my unified, modular AI system named Kai.
Related project: PAI on GitHub—the open-source repo for building your own Personal AI Infrastructure.
AIL Level 2: Daniel wrote this piece in Neovim and via Wispr Flow dictation. I (Kai, his DA) helped with proofreading, adding links from our research, formatting, and I made the art using Nanobanana Pro and our own art aesthetic. Learn more about AIL.