Elon's advice for near-retirees: Don't save money for retirement. https://t.co/cD54K9OLIJ pic.twitter.com/BHseG7hpn2
— Peter H. Diamandis, MD (@PeterDiamandis) January 9, 2026
That's not a big "if," is it? "If any of the things we've said are true"? He must have said many things, and only one of them needs to be true before his prediction clicks in. Seems like a sure bet. If we assume Elon Musk always tells the truth. And knows the future. But he doesn't know the future, but he confidently asserts his prediction. So we know he doesn't always tell the truth. And yet, in his world, he only needs to be right about ONE thing, for his advice to pan out... if he's right about that only one thing needs to be true concept.
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74 comments:
If money won’t matter why did he fight so hard for his compensation package?
The richest man in the world is telling us saving for the future is irrelevant, unaware of how his very actions show he doesn't believe his own pie in the sky predictions.
I remember the trillion dollars that DOGE was going to save us, that once again he wildly overstated and never achieved.
Love what Musk has and is creating for the human race. But I don't buy this at all. Not a chance in 10 years. And in 20 years, if I'm still around I won't even know what's happening around me. So...someone will need to tell me if he was right or not. And who he is. And who I am.
Isn't it a bit more complicated? The prediction has two parts: [at least one of this list of things will happen] => [because of that, you won't need to worry about retirement].
So at least one of the predicted foundational things could happen, say really cheap AI robots. But is that then sufficient for worry-free old age?
You'd need a few other things to happen besides just the technology. Like a distribution system that gets the technology to everyone. Whether that system is just market forces, or some kind of socialism, or some blend of both.
No guarantee that voters and people in authority will make the altruistic choices, or even that the market will encourage the millions of self-interested choices, for that to happen.
Look at immigration. Millions of people voting against their self-interest (no matter which side of the issue you're on, you believe the people on the other side are harmed by their own choice). CC, JSM
Mark- actually DOGE was on the right track. They somehow got turned into the bad guys, probably by people you follow. And they got their job cut off. It's hard to get people weaned off of Free Money and Things. And, as we see from the Minnesota, California, New York, Illinois, and probably all other state fraud programs- DOGE, and his predictions of DOGE would have been right.
We just didn't have the guts to go through with it.
This was not the proletariat dictatorship I had on my Marxist bingo card.
If nuclear war occurs, I guess it won’t matter.
Hopefully, Musk hasn’t predicted that one…
Is he holding onto his money? I imagine so.
No time frame given, so it is meaningless.
Squirrels squirrel because they can't save the labor of other squirrels to work for them after they retire. People can save the labor of others with money that they earn laboring for others today. The money itself is just a medium moving your labor from today to tomorrow.
I love Musk the Innovator but am rather cool to Muskradamas's predictions.
Mr. Musk is much, much smarter than me and his words would come as most welcome if only I were much, much younger and had what it takes to enjoy a lifestyle based on hookers and blow.
Elon is usually correct, but his timelines are not always correct.
Real food is getting to be like housing...
Not enough to go around already.
Dont listen to this man if you want to eat in the future...
Markets are easily manipulated, like with healthcare and housing. Sane ppl see what is coming in this country which is why the smarter ones aren't having kids anymore. Hard work and education are no guarantees of a good life.
You play Marxist bingo in the big house?
Stay there as long as you can. They don't play that kind of bingo in the retirement/nursing homes.
Idiot take: "I remember the trillion dollars that DOGE was going to save us, that once again he wildly overstated and never achieved."
Never! It's been less than a year and all evidence gathered since DOGE revealed the tip of the iceberg (even only saving $1B would be praiseworthy if lying leftists weren't so full of blinding hatred for Trump) which led to the $1T prediction. Of course now we are peeling the layers of the Immigrant-NGO-DNC money laundering operation back and it appears that we might eventually stop over a trillion in fraud and abuse of our very generous welfare system.
The hookers wouldnt need to work either so a lot of you are out of luck even if Musk is right. I suspect however that in a world of seeming consumption equality some will still be more equal than others.
How am I supposed to liquidate my 401k and buy more guitars on a Saturday? Thanks a lot, Elon.
The trick is to spot the patterns. Some do it better than others.
I think he fought for that compensation package because he felt he deserved it (or, more properly, would deserve it), and that's how men (especially but not exclusively men, I should say) signal societal worth.
Plus, since that compensation package only kicks in if he pulls off a very remarkable rise in shareholder value, he was setting a challenge for himself, and one that would also benefit a lot of normies.
(Feelings alert:) One of the things I admire most about Musk is that his projects are so prosocial - at least by his obvious lights*. He doesn't try to do things that he believes would bring down civilization; he applies himself to things that he believes will enhance and even save human society. The left gets so bent out of shape that he also profits from those things (or at least they do now that he's on the same side as Trump; they used to simply elide that detail when he was One of the Good People) - but as I've said before, bring on the fully autonomous driving before I'm old enough that my kids want to take away my keys!
* He might be wrong, and the Law of Unintended Consequences, which always takes its percentage, may kill us all. But I don't think it's reasonable to argue that he doesn't really mean the things he says about his projects.
The richest man in the world is telling us saving for the future is irrelevant, unaware of how his very actions show he doesn't believe his own pie in the sky predictions.
Musk in general doesn't "save" the money he makes, instead he invests it in still further businesses.
Home, health care and entertainment all provided for free. I guess we're still going to have to pay for food, energy and transportation.
“Musk in general doesn't "save" the money he makes, instead he invests it in still further businesses.”
Bingo!
Buwaya: "The hookers wouldnt need to work either so a lot of you are out of luck"
3 words: AI Sex Robots. CC, JSM
..If any of the things we've said are true, saving for retirement will be irrelevant..
no Duh! the world faces an existencial crisis.
in ten years, ALL THE ICE in the WORLD will have melted
CLIMATE CHANGE!
in ten years, the russians will have started a nuclear war!
nuclear winter!!
in ten years, the Somalians will own THE ENTIRE Country!
fraud!
in tes years, we will ALL be billionaires (TRILLIONAIRES!)
inflation!
There is NO POINT in planning for the future, because we will NOT be here
I think the problem with Musk’s statement is that there is no upper limit on consumption. Can everyone on Earth have her own island with a 30,000 sq ft. tropical dwelling? If so then can everyone take a weekend excursion to the orbital time share, or spend a week on the moon?
Musk was probably thinking in terms of robots and fusion power plants providing a capped level of consumption that is equivalent of today’s $20 millionaire. And that is not a stretch at all, because today’s poor have lives that are objectively better than that of the kings of past centuries. What is missing is the human drive to be elite and higher status no matter what the baseline is. Higher status is related to power, the cool kids will still want to rule. Girls still have to rate men on a scale of status to decide who to mate with. Boys still want to dominate. So there will still be things to work out in the new golden age. Total equality is not assured.
john mosby said...
..3 words: AI Sex Robots..
3 words: DON'T DATE ROBOTS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2Br0Qn4yg
Is Musk making a distinction between holding money and capital?
'Shoes for Industry' compadre.
Yeah, sure. Hey, you guys holding?
No, the means of production are held by all the people.
No, man, you got any uppers?
No, there are no classes in our society (or in our high school).
Come on, baby, you can tell me. You got any pot?
Oh, not yet, but soon, heavy industry will make it possible for all the people to have everything it wants in a free marketplace.
Oh, Daddio, you guys are so crazy!
have You guessed the name, of Billy's planet?
IT WAS EARTH
DON'T DATE ROBOTS!
Giving Musk the benefit of doubt, he has a very narrow frame of reference. Does he really believe that this tantalizing future will just be "distributed"? He can't. What I think he truly believes is that the masses have no wish to control their futures (so they might as well let him do it.)
I do believe that, between AI and robotics, so many job categories will be eliminated that we will have no choice but to move beyond the work-for-pay model running our economy.
That said, one would be foolish to move into the brave new post-money future before your landlord and the corner grocery do.
And when the new golden age arrives there will still be people who are determined to bring all in to the paradise of Communism or subjugate them into a stern religion of peace, which, of course, they will be commissar or mulla.
If saving isn't required - then work isn't required.
This is a bad sign.
Buy your fatty floaty chair now while you still can.
LOL@ Wince. Don’t quit your Firesign Theater day job.
"And in 20 years, if I'm still around I won't even know what's happening around me. So...someone will need to tell me if he was right or not. And who he is. And who I am."
No need. You won't remember it anyway.
ATTENTION - In his latest post Trump figured out to solve the affordability crisis. He just decreed that credit card interest rates can't exceed 10%.
Presumably next is mortgage interest rates ( I vote for 3.5%), Big Macs ($2.50 seems reasonable), and gasoline of course (everyone ok with 0.99 cents?). And then hotel rooms - oops let's forget that one.
I guess he is a GENIUS after all!! I was so wrong!!
Only fools do not look into the future and save. Fools that expect 'government' to save them from their own foolish mistakes.
AI: "Today, the term "Cassandra Syndrome" or "Cassandra Complex" is used in psychology and social commentary to describe individuals who offer valid warnings about impending crises... but are ignored or ridiculed."
Even smart people can give you bad advice.
Humans have an inexhaustible need to have needs.
The money that Musk and his fellow billionaires makes isn't even money, it's equity. The money that they use isn't even money, it's debt because they just take a loan out on the value of their equity. That's why they only pays 0.1% in taxes.
Richard Gere will keep squirrelling away, iykwimaityd…CC, JSM
"The money itself is just a medium moving your labor from today to tomorrow."
Try taking that 25 cents you saved from your paycheck in 1975 instead of using it to buy a loaf of bread and buying a loaf of bread today with it and see how much of your labor was moved from then to now.
Though a uniquely brilliant engineer and businessman, in the final analysis Musk is nuts.
@ Wince - I used the same reference less than a year ago:https://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2025/06/classical-reference.html
Classic.
@ Mason G: If that $0.25 in 1975 went into an index fund then it would buy bread for the rest of your life if you started taking it out now.
It is ironic that the uber-capitalist Muskryoshka doll is a 60s hippie freak at the end.
"If we assume Elon Musk always tells the truth. And knows the future."
You're confusing him with AI.
i went to a city in South America a few years back. There were, a very few, palatial homes. Quite a few "middle-class" homes and a LOT of shacks. Our local told us the government would provide all your basic needs even if you put forth no effort. Hence the "LOTS" of shacks. Try a bit, work a bit and you get the "middle class". Strive hard, bit of luck and you are wealthy.
I see the same for Musk's future, although the "poor" may do lots better than the locals of my travels. And the wealthy will be the new Kings.
As noted in another comment, there just ain't enough Mediterranean Islands to go around.
I'm to old to see if Musk is right. But I'll continue to urge my children and grands to save and invest.
Although in my case, he's probably right. In 10 or 20 years, it won't matter. Except maybe to my kids.
Howard, Elon Musk has paid at least $12 billion in taxes personally to the US treasury, never mind the corporate taxes and the taxes paid by his hundreds of thousands of very well paid employees. I'd say he is doing his share and then some.
Worry about it. The Republican Senate just stabbed us in the back..
Mike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
·
1h
Why even bother to run as a Republican if you’re just going to vote like a Democrat once you’ve been elected?
https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/2010030779942986000?s=20
the very end of that clip the other guy says
"you'll have entertainment"
and you will like it.
Assuming enough resources to satisfy everyone’s desires. If either the resources or the desires get out of whack, then there needs to be a way to accommodate that. It can be something like money or it can be government action. I prefer the money route.
Wince: Shoes for the dead! Firesign Theatre forever & ever!!
“Elon is usually correct, but his timelines are not always correct.”
I imagine the future comes faster if you’re a tech billionaire. Among the underclass, the calendar has hardly flipped a page since the 1970’s.
Among the underclass, the calendar has hardly flipped a page since the 1970’s.
I disagree. I grew up in the 70's to a lower-middle class family, we had one car and one television. Now the same family would enjoy multiple largeTV's (perhaps one for each family member), a smart phone per person, multiple cars, multiple streaming services, etc. Being lower middle class today gives you a lifestyle that only the rich had ni the 70's.
"@ Mason G: If that $0.25 in 1975 went into an index fund then it would buy bread for the rest of your life if you started taking it out now."
Is there a guarantee it will always work that way?
What the hell is he talking about? Will human nature be repealed? Is he dumping his own trillion dollars?
I like Musk a lot, and think his purchase of and de-censoring of Twitter/X may have saved civilization. But he doesn't seem to have a solid grip on what makes humans tick.
Americans, even the poorest Americans, live better and more comfortably than any generation of humans in the history of the world. Their "needs" are (mostly) well taken care of--but those needs change and grow all the time, and everybody wants a bigger chunk of what they "need" than they have--and certainly a bigger chunk than most of their fellow humans have.
That is never going to change.
Chip Roy
@chiproytx
·
3h
When Elon
@elonmusk
and Vivek
@VivekGRamaswamy
visited Congress a year ago, and every member ran to the mic to cheerlead the concept of DOGE, I went up and told them finding fraud and waste wouldn’t be the problem- THIS room (full of Congress) would be their problem.
https://x.com/chiproytx/status/2010004882309427443?s=20
Universal abundance and UBI will probably come to pass, and it will be the worst thing imaginable for most people's psyches. Some few will find meaning, but mostly it will be a terrible thing.
Musk also seems to believe that AI will develop a perfect understanding of things at some (rapidly approaching) point. But he seems not to consider or take into account the spiritual or metaphysical--which is a very real aspect of human consciousness and--whether "real" or "imaginary"--of human life. AI cannot understand that, except in a synthetic or mimetic way.
So economics will be dead (no scarcity, no tradeoffs) and instead we're going to get the 'warmth of collectivism' in the near future after all?
I see that path to a future that's more of an amalgamation of the New World Order, authoritarianism, and Caddyshack's Judge Smailes: "you'll own nothing, you'll get what we give you, and you'll like it!"
I'd recommend being an ant with rugged individualism.
"If any of the things we've said are true, saving for retirement will be irrelevant."
Just to be safe, I'll keep saving for retirement. Sometimes Elon Musk overstates things. He's a brilliant engineer, but he's also a salesman. Word to the wise.
Omg....
Something something own supply. Take a past look at the future. Most are epic in their failure…
“I disagree. I grew up in the 70's to a lower-middle class family, we had one car and one television.”
You weren’t in the underclass, Tommy.
I suspect Musk's blind spot is that he's never been at a loss for purposeful activity, despite being born rich, so it's harder for him to imagine the plight of those of us whose work provides a purpose we weren't driven to seek.
The only purpose I was ever driven to seek was having and raising children - check and check. But my paid and volunteer work over the years, though I undertook it out of necessity (in the first case) and to fill time (in the second), did give me a (lesser) sense of purpose, as well as structure. I'm still struggling with "retirement," now that my husband is retired and I no longer have as great a need to support his purpose. I'm a little sick of the taste of lotus, but - as it has been all my life - nothing, no particular kind of task or project, particularly appeals. Musk doesn't ever seem to have had that problem.
I think what Musk isn't saying but is thinking is "don't save for retirement, because when you're of retirement age, things will be radically different, and not in a positive way - you might be back in the 17th century where electrical grid, online savings, and all the other niceties are gone".
I was listening to economics podcast earlier this week, were host and guest vigorously agreed that we Americans are headed to civil war, fought with guns, and the world to a global war, not fought by tanks but by electronics.
Then I see Minneapolis erupt again.
What Howard posted, times 100
I guess he is a GENIUS after all!! I was so wrong!!
No. It's a stupid idea and won't go anywhere.
See how easy that is?
But you are consistently wrong about pretty much everything you post here. Be better.
“Universal abundance and UBI will probably come to pass, and it will be the worst thing imaginable for most people's psyches.”
Can you imagine retiring when you are 5 years old? You would grow up to be a Kennedy or a Pritzger.
Musk is projecting that, at his present rate of wealth accumulation, as augmented by AI, he’ll own everything, including what we are all now saving. Also, once Trump’s birthright citizenship is applied retroactively, there will be no one left here but people like him who became citizens through naturalization.
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