Can People Live a Good Life in a Jobless World?

Philip Kotler

Several major companies have recently reported large job cuts and layoffs in various industries.

• In May 2025, Microsoft announced the layoff of approximately 7,000 employees.
• Intel is planning to reduce its workforce by 15–20%, which could affect over 10,000 employees.
• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy indicated that AI advancements would lead to workforce reductions over time as part of the company’s cost-cutting measures.
• Google in June 2025 extended buyout offers to more employees, signaling potential further job cuts across the tech sector.
• P&G announced plans to eliminate 7,000 nonmanufacturing jobs, accounting for approximately 15% of its global office workforce, over the next two years.
• Paramount in August 2024 announced it would lay off 15% of its U.S. workforce, amounting to about 2,000 employees.

More layoffs will increase over time as companies implement more artificial intelligence and automation.

At the same time, recent college graduates will be facing one of the most challenging job markets in over a decade. In May 2025, the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 22 to 27 climbed to 5.8%, the highest since 2012 (excluding the pandemic period). College graduates are busy submitting multiple applications for jobs at a time when companies are cutting down on their hiring plans. Many stories are heard about highly qualified college graduates spending weeks or months submitting applications and failing to get a job.

Several factors are at work:

· Impact of artificial intelligence. AI is reshaping the job landscape, especially in white-collar jobs in such roles as accounting, finance, legal services, and in coding and programming tasks.

· Decline in Entry-Level Opportunities. Jonathan, a 26-year-old software engineer, applied to hundreds of positions with minimal responses, highlighting the competitive and saturated job market.

· Questioning the Value of a Degree. Many graduates are questioning the return on investment of their college education. Some are accepting roles outside their field of study or pursuing additional education to enhance their employability.

Will Artificial Intelligence and Automation Kill Most Jobs?

All business firms will replace jobs that can be done better or cheaper with artificial intelligence and automation. This applies particularly to jobs based on repetitive work where the rules are clear. This describes many early-entry jobs.

One CEO made the following statement about AI: “I am of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we as humans do.”

This CEO is clearly wrong. There will be manyjobs that cannot be done by AI or machinery. Here are the characteristics of jobs needing a lot of human judgment or service:

· Jobs with a high level of complexity requiring experience and deep analysis.

· Jobs undergoing rapid changes in their work rules.

· Jobs involving personal service, care and empathy.

· Jobs involving decisions that will affect a huge number of people and require widespread approval beyond just cost savings.

If Most Jobs Disappear, How Can Jobless Persons be Supported in a Post-work Society?

One of the first people to raise this question is Jeremy Rifkin who published The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era in 1995. Rifkin argued that advances in technology — especially automation, robotics, and information systems — were already reducing the demand for human labor in such areas as manufacturing, agriculture, services, and clerical jobs. Rifkin saw this happening years before AI, digitalization, machine learning, 3D printing, and several other new technologies existed. He predicted a polarized society and a shrinking middle class with a small elite of highly skilled professionals and millions of others facing precarious employment. To help the unemployed, Rifkin advocated a “third sector” of volunteer and community-based service organizations that would create new jobs with government support to rebuild decaying neighborhoods and provide social services. He advocated a value-added tax on nonessential goods and services and redirecting of federal and state funds to provide a “social wage” in lieu of welfare payments to third-sector workers.

Rivkin’s solution is similar to normal policies applied when economies slide into a recession or a deep depression. Unemployed workers receive government payments while they remain unemployed. In the meantime, the government works hard to establish new jobs.

Here we are talking about something fundamentally different. We are talking about a situation of widespread permanent unemployment. The number of unemployed workers hugely exceeds the number of available jobs. The nation can produce all the goods and services that people need through automated work without needing their labor.

Of course there will be some jobs. Skilled people are needed to manage government agencies and companies. Service people are needed to do things that machines can’t do, such as hair styling and taking care of older parents and younger children.

Most citizens will have no jobs and no income. How are they to be supported? What will government and business do to help?

The government will be much smaller in size because most government work will be run by AI. The government will raise money by taxing existing businesses. It will distribute the tax money to unemployed workers. Firms will call these taxes their “social responsibility” expenditures.

The government will decide on how to distribute adequate payments to its jobless citizens. Large families will receive larger total payment. The government will set up a UBI system (Universal Basic Income). UBI provides all citizens with a regular unconditional cash payment to reduce poverty and improve financial stability. UBI was typically limited to low-income individuals. The system might start with every new baby receiving a $5,000 deposit in a bank that will earn a normal interest rate. The money cannot be withdrawn until the newborn reaches age 20.

The challenge is to maintain egalitarianism and meaning in the post-work society. Jobless citizens will receive UBI money and make cash payments for their purchases of goods and services.

We assume that a democratic government will take over in the post-work world. Otherwise, the government might be a dictatorship that controls and impoverishes the displaced workers. AI and automation can either liberate or enslave humanity.

How Will Jobless Citizens Spend Their Time?

Earlier, when jobs prevailed, the average employee worked eight hours a day Monday through Friday. Many gave more than 8 hours if we included transportation time to and from work and additional work carried on at home after the workday. By the time workers returned home and prepared and ate their meals, only a few hours we left for sundry activities such as talking to their children, watching TV or film, playing games, learning a new skill, or taking a walk. The Saturday-Sunday weekend was open to many sundry activities, including religious observance, driving to visit friends, traveling, attending entertainment venues, and so on.

What would happen if people were told that they didn’t have to work to meet their needs for food, clothing, housing and healthcare? This question was asked in a 2021 German study to test the effects of receiving a Universal Basic Income. The study found that choosing no work improved mental health, feelings of autonomy, and generosity. UBI studies across the world have shown that basic income benefits communities as a whole and does not cause everyone to quit their jobs.

Most people without work will adopt many different types of behavior.

· Some will put more time into raising their children and educating them.

· Some will spend time learning new skills such as painting, playing a musical instrument, learning a different language, or reading a lot of books.

· Some will spend more time doing local or foreign travel.

· Some will collect other jobless citizens to participate in projects such growing food, gardening or joining a singing group.

· Some will form or join political or protest groups to change or improve government or business.

· Some will spend time playing card games, Mah jong, chess, or computer games.

· Some will turn to gaming where they play roulette, blackjack or make bets on many events.

· Some will provide care services to others in need.

· Some will form or join gangs pursuing good or bad activities.

· Some will feel depressed and sit or lay around or sleep.

· Some will turn to hard drugs or alcoholism.

People will gain their identity and their status from the activities they engage in.

Hopefully, society’s output of goods and services will be more than adequate. New technology might produce a society of abundance. Otherwise, society will be one of scarcity and hardship.

Will Society be Based on Individualism or Collaboration?

Americans developed a highly individualist culture. Each American individual and family have the freedom to pursue their own goals. Many will be successful in pursuing their goals and many others will flounder and fail. One could make the case that more happiness might be achieved by organizing and living in small self-governing communities that share resources collaboratively.

Conclusion

This essay seeks to understand a society in which most citizens are permanently jobless. Most jobs have been displaced by AI and automation. The existing firms manage to produce and distribute enough products and services to provide a livable life for most citizens. The firms are taxed and the tax money is distributed to these citizens using a Universal Basic Income system. Citizens will use their income as they see fit. The quality of their life will depend on whether their government is organized to deliver citizen well-being and happiness or citizen servitude and exploitation.