When AI no longer needs you to work: The end of the 10,000-year social contract and the ultimate answer of Bitcoin

The labor-capital social contract that has lasted for ten thousand years was officially declared dead in Q3 2025. The death certificate is a set of cold data.

From an AI perspective, the indicators for that quarter delivered an unmistakable obituary for capitalism. Actual GDP grew by 4.3% year-over-year, the fastest in two years. Corporate profit margins hit record highs, driving significant profit growth. From a traditional viewpoint, the economy appeared prosperous.

However, on the other hand, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, and employment growth was nearly stagnant. White-collar industries, for the first time since 2024, showed expectations of net negative growth. This is the first time in history that a strong economy and record-breaking corporate profits did not lead to job creation. This is not a recession but a system openly declaring: our prosperity no longer depends on your labor.

The University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index fell to 52.9, the second-lowest in history. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index repeatedly hit new highs. This divergence is not a paradox but a direct cause-and-effect: markets cheer for efficiency, while workers face unemployment due to efficiency. Indicators of economic success are now directly linked to the elimination of human labor.

The original contract dates back to before 8000 BC. The invention of the plow created surplus products beyond survival needs, giving rise to professions like artisans and merchants. The 19th-century Industrial Revolution replicated this model: factory workers’ wages exceeded subsistence levels, providing disposable income.

This was not out of the kindness of capitalists but an inevitable requirement of industrialization. Companies needed skilled workers, workers needed rising wages to become consumers, and governments needed taxes from both sides. The contract operated because all parties depended on each other.

Just one generation ago, a college diploma was a ticket to social mobility. Today, graduates carry hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt as they enter the market. Their new competitors are tireless, never rest, and achieve exponential leaps in intelligence every six months. Elite management once promised “hard work pays off,” but the new reality is: your efforts are now competing against a group of tireless “opponents.”

Q3 2025 marks a historic turning point because it exposes the true role of artificial intelligence: it completely severs capitalism’s dependence on labor. This is crucial. Capital still needs labor, but no longer relies on it; it views labor as a convenient tool rather than a necessary condition for growth.

Previous technological revolutions—plows, steam engines, electricity—eliminated specific jobs but also created economic surpluses, leading to new employment opportunities. Every transformation maintained the core contract: labor creates value, value generates wages, wages translate into investment surpluses. But AI has completely broken this chain.

Digital employees not only replace workers but also directly dismantle the “worker-consumer” economic model that sustains capitalism. “No employment growth” is not a temporary market friction but a new long-term norm. Future quarterly data will confirm this trend: productivity increases, profits grow, employment rates decline. This divergence is the core feature of the new economic model.

Listening to discussions about AI and labor, you’ll hear a familiar debate: “Will AI replace all jobs?” Then comes, “No, just like every previous technological shift, new jobs will emerge.” Stop. This framework is fundamentally flawed.

Throughout human history, machines more intelligent than humans, capable of acting like humans, working nonstop, and achieving exponential intelligence growth every six months, have never existed. This is not the Second Industrial Revolution, nor is it about “job replacement.” It introduces a new competitor into the labor market, with operating rules entirely different from any human worker group in history.

When machines surpass human capabilities, they replace not just jobs but also the social contract that has tightly bound capital and labor for ten thousand years. The idea that “AI is replacing jobs” ignores the psychological impact of the ongoing transformation on humanity.

AI is not just replacing work; it is injecting a continuous stream of competitors into the labor market. They are like elites freshly graduated from a “digital university,” working around the clock, evolving at a pace far beyond human learning. 2025 marks the shift of AI’s role from “tool” to “labor force.”

When one million digital analysts can simultaneously conduct financial modeling, human analysts are not replaced but defeated by opponents that never sleep, never negotiate, and evolve faster than humans. Certainly, humans will still have jobs, but optimists refuse to face a brutal fact: with just a college degree, the future will be entirely unviable.

For those raised within the elite management system, this impact is devastating. You were taught from childhood: study hard, get high scores, be number one, and you will succeed. This competitive mindset and drive to excel once powered capitalism.

Now, your competitors process information at an unmatched speed, remember everything they learn, and achieve exponential evolution while you sleep. You cannot outwork a tireless opponent, outsmart a self-upgrading one, or compete in an endless race for first place.

This is not just “machines stealing jobs,” but the entire value system you believed in—effort equals reward, competition creates opportunities, ability determines success—has become mathematically unsustainable. The game is not over; the rules have been rewritten, and human victory is structurally impossible.

Historically, when 98% of humans stopped farming, they became consumers of industrial products. But when AI injects infinite competitors into the labor market, what can displaced workers become? Those deemed “safe” jobs—elderly care, healthcare, parenting—pay wages insufficient even for basic survival.

This creates a vicious cycle: governments lose tax revenue as workers become less competitive; companies see profits decline as consumers vanish; ultimately, the consumer market collapses. How do governments respond? By printing money to stimulate demand, causing the very currency that should store value across generations to depreciate continuously.

The social contract once promised: work hard, save rationally, and you can accumulate lasting wealth. But the rise of AI makes this absurd. When competing against near-zero marginal cost opponents, no labor can generate surplus; when governments rely on money printing to sustain consumption, no savings tool can preserve or grow value.

The official poverty line for a family of four is about $32,000. Yet market analysts reveal a harsh truth: this figure is a statistical lie fabricated to mask the crisis. Combining traditional poverty measures with modern expenditure structures, the real poverty line for a family of four should be $130,000–$150,000.

Not $32,000—there’s a huge gap. They define the current poverty line as a scam and point out that the “cliff effect” of welfare policies traps countless families in the “death valley.” When family annual income is between $40,000 and $100,000, welfare reductions outpace wage growth, ultimately lowering living standards.

Data from multiple independent cost-of-living calculators confirm this survival pressure: in many US metropolitan areas, even an annual salary of $70,000–$90,000 often only covers basic expenses, leaving no room for savings. Below this income, you’re not accumulating wealth but merely struggling to survive.

This is not just statistical error but the inevitable result of long-term asset inflation outpacing wage growth. In many cities, a nurse earning $65,000 cannot afford the average rent near hospitals; teachers with master’s degrees qualify for food assistance. Frankly, today’s “middle class” has already fallen into functional poverty.

All this has sparked a perfect conflict: as digital competitors flood knowledge-based labor markets, most workers have no savings buffer to withstand unemployment shocks. Economic growth requires rising wages to support consumption, but asset holders need to suppress wages to maintain profit margins.

Now, AI offers capital a perfect escape: near-zero marginal cost infinite labor supply. The reason related analysis has gone viral is not because of new math formulas but because 60% of Americans finally see themselves in these data.

Before digital employees appeared, this system could no longer generate investment surpluses for most people. AI is not destroying a well-functioning contract but accelerating the collapse of a system already overwhelmed by contradictions. This explains why consumer confidence is at an all-time low while stock markets continue to thrive.

$BTC has always served those seeking an alternative system since its inception. Early believers—veteran investors who entered at $100, $1,000, $10,000—are now selling off. Billions of dollars are dispersing from a few hands into millions of new holders.

If this old system is collapsing, why are they still selling? Because whether they initially entered out of dissatisfaction with the old system or not, they are now part of the top wealth distribution. Some are ideologically angry at the government’s acceptance of $BTC, but this is not the pure alternative they envisioned.

But at this point, the dilemma of labor and the trajectory of $BTC point to the same truth: progress is never a binary opposition of black and white. Not all workers will lose their jobs, and the old system will not be completely replaced before a new one emerges. Systems will merge and overlap.

We are now in this process of integration, called by some the Fourth Turning. Consider the intersecting forces: intergenerational wealth transfer is underway; young people who never participated in the old system are voting for governments that support cryptocurrencies and weaken traditional financial intermediaries; billions are flowing from a few $BTC whales into millions of new participants.

This is not the total revolution envisioned by early believers. Governments have not collapsed, and fiat currencies have not disappeared. Instead, the old and new systems are merging, and early $BTC billionaires face a choice.

This massive capital must find a way out. Here’s a paradox: leaving the $BTC ecosystem means returning to reliance on scarce fiat currencies, while AI will destroy everything on the path to abundance. You can choose to embrace this change proactively or be passively consumed by it.

Early $BTC investors shifting into AI are not abandoning their original purpose. They are seizing the greatest excess return opportunity in human history: holding technologies that are dismantling the old system while participating in the creation of new systems that absorb the value released after the old system collapses.

This is a strategic move for the future. In this world, systems will not fully replace each other but will merge, creating asymmetric opportunities for those who understand both.

Young people demanding government support for cryptocurrencies while seeking protection from AI-driven unemployment are not contradictory. They are intuitively grasping the conclusion early investors reached through rational analysis: the fusion of systems is the greatest opportunity period.

$BTC funds dispersing from whales to millions of retail investors is not a sign of a bear market. When an alternative system becomes mainstream, this decentralized diffusion is inevitable. Early holders who cashed out at $100,000 per BTC understand a truth most have not seen.

During the next 3–5 years of the fusion period, the value increase of this massive capital in AI infrastructure will far surpass its appreciation in $BTC itself. But this is only a short-term opportunity within the fusion phase, and a harsh reality must be recognized: betting on AI seems wise but is actually a trap.

Just as AI competes with human labor, it will also compete with the core processes of capitalism: from idea generation, to commercialization, to building moats. The core of venture capital is to build durable competitive advantages over years.

AI’s emergence has drastically compressed this timeline. With programming barriers eliminated, development efficiency increased tenfold, competition will arrive at unprecedented speed, and companies will struggle to build moats. While startup speed accelerates, so does decline.

This speed will trap investors chasing the next AI giant. When you finally identify a promising AI leader, three competitors with better solutions are already in the market. Early AI infrastructure investors know they are not buying lasting moats but riding a surging wave that will eventually recede.

The reason for high returns is the very short window. Afterward, when AI fully commodifies software development and destroys industry-wide competitive advantages, the only assets that will remain resilient are those that do not depend on human innovation cycles, regulation, or barriers.

That is: mathematics, scarcity, and code. When this transformation settles, and the old and new systems fully merge, $BTC will be the only intact store of value because it is the only asset that has never depended on the collapsing old system from its inception.

This is not purely ideological purity but a form of temporal arbitrage during civilization’s transition. The rise of $BTC is not due to economic chaos but benefits from the structural collapse of capitalism. When governments print money to support workers displaced by digital competitors, scarcity must be embedded in mathematical algorithms, not policy.

The fixed supply of 21 million $BTC is not just a feature but a constitutional amendment for post-labor capitalism. In an AI-driven world of abundance and unlimited labor supply, absolute scarcity becomes the only reliable store of value.

All other assets—fiat currencies, bonds, even real estate—depend on surpluses created by labor, but that foundation has long vanished. The timing is perfect: in 2024–2025, US institutional investors embracing $BTC occurs before the labor data fully exposes the crisis.

Early institutional entry was driven by a fantasy: AI would only enhance human ability, not compete with it. Now, the data from Q3 2025 reveals the truth: institutional capital is shifting from depreciating fiat assets to mathematically based scarce assets.

Global pension assets total $59 trillion; even 2% flowing into $BTC means $1.2 trillion in incremental capital. This is not speculation but fiduciary responsibility. When alternative options are government-issued bonds that cannot provide employment, allocating to $BTC is the inevitable choice.

By 2026, three forces will collide, making the cracks in capitalism undeniable: accelerated AI deployment, turning unemployment into a visible “labor optimization” in corporate reports; political reckoning, as voters recognize the contract cannot be repaired through incremental reforms; institutional capital shifting, as pension funds massively allocate to $BTC, signaling distrust in the old system.

2026 will not be the year of contract rupture but the year when this rupture becomes undeniable. The key issue is not whether the old contract will survive. You can see this reality in any city. The contract has already died. The real question is: what will we build on this ruins?

AI’s ability to deliver super-high returns is because it acts as the “demolition team” of the old system, ruthlessly destroying the old order. Early investors betting on AI are correct; it breaks the social contract, and this transformation holds trillions of dollars in opportunity.

But they also understand that after this rupture, capital will flow into assets that do not depend on the old system AI destroys. When capital and labor permanently part ways, digital competitors flood markets, GDP surges, and public confidence collapses, what assets will store value in a prosperous future?

Not fiat currencies relying on labor-created surpluses, not government bonds dependent on tax revenues, and certainly not corporate stocks relying on consumer spending. The only answer: mathematics, scarcity, and code. The greatest wealth transfer in human history is not measured in dollars but a rewriting of the ten-thousand-year human civilization contract. You are not too early; you are just in time.

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