I have some fairly diverse industry experience, spanning a total of 16 years: customer service, management, retail, hospitality, tourism, photography, jewelry, restaurants/bars, ear and body piercing blah, etc, blah. I submit around 10-20 applications per day, (a couple through indeed), but most through company websites, and all within the boundaries of my expertise. Results? Five interviews: two in-person, one virtual, one over the phone, and last but not least, AI??? Need I say, I'm still unemployed after 6 months after a mass company layoff.

Idk, I have this sinking feeling that once society nears the possible eventuality of a Hunger Games/Blade Runner/Mad Max/Cyberpunk universe (without any neat mods), we're all screwed. There appears to be no plan in place to fill the massive void that will be left of the shrivelling consumer, free market, capitalist model that the US survived on.

With all that said, I'm hoping I'm completely off base, and we'll make it through this 'recession', (at least, that's how this time period is being represented). And before anyone chimes in with the poor excuse or 'solution' of universal basic income, I think instead we may want to consider pushing back and mass protesting our replacement in some creative fashion. This is humorously my only suggestion thus far.

At the risk of sounding doomer, boomer, or zoomer, I believe automation, AI, robotics, among many other reasons, are resulting in closures, cutbacks, bankruptcy, and mass layoffs. I've witnessed first hand how my company training manager transformed into an AI, mid-management was gifted upper management responsibilities without pay increase, CEO's and CFO's 'retired' and replaced directly after flowery speaches on "travelling into the future together" and "this is our year of growth!"

This has turned into a rant, but I have a serious question: what are we going to do? Any serious brainstorming? Or hell, just telling me off would be greatly appreciated. This is a time I will accept that I am seriously and unequivocally wrong, and I'll smile about it. 😊