Kyla Scanlon

We've gotten really good at producing goods cheaply because we did a lot of international trade.

And so goods have gotten a lot cheaper because we've gotten more productive at producing them, but it's much harder to get productive with services.

So you can't really automate a physician, but you can automate a car factory.

And so I think that has also really shifted the American dream where like the average American today has a ton of stuff.

Like most Americans have a lot of things.

But that, you know, more if you're thinking broadly speaking about buying that house, it's a little bit more difficult.

to achieve.

And so I think the American dream at one time was like accumulation of goods, buying the house, getting married, having kids, retiring.

Buying a lot of stuff is achievable, but the other half of it is not so achievable.

But anyway, I think the point of this question is it's very much preference.

Yeah, I mean, I'm curious, like, you know, one thing that we're really seeing a lot of right now is people who over-optimized for their careers and now are very tragically having fertility issues, especially for women.

And so I think what we're talking about, too, is also the world of AI, like the big city career industry.

So it's going to be really challenged by the onslaught of automation, which is actually, funnily enough, the answer to Bauman's cost disease is AI and automation should help services get cheaper because all of a sudden we have supposedly, I don't think it's going to happen, but like 100 AI physicians, right?

And so I think that's the other thing is that like for me, I moved to the big city from a small town, smallish town outside Louisville and was like, OK, I'm going to do this thing.

And then the whole thing shut down.

And so I think one thing that's really important is you do save no matter where you are.

You try to invest no matter where you are.

Buying a home is obviously more difficult now.

But I do want to make it really clear that I don't think these things have to be mutually exclusive, that you can, you know, have a career, maybe think about like what you want in life because we are seeing some tragic challenges that people are facing and then still try to save and invest as much as you can.

So I think those are important caveats to that conversation.