Being Human When Work Disappears

As AI automates more kinds of paid labor, public debate must shift from narrow economic metrics to the social and civic functions work has historically performed (meaning, status, routine, apprenticeship). Policymaking should therefore reckon not just with income replacement but with institutions that replace work’s role in identity formation—education, civic roles, meaningful time use, and rites of admission into adulthood. — If labor becomes scarce, politics will pivot to questions of civic meaning and social order, shaping welfare, education and cultural narratives for decades.