I don't think FI (financially independent) is the right term to divide the world. Why not go with rich? Aren't all retired people FI by definition? I don't thin

I don't think FI (financially independent) is the right term to divide the world. Why not go with rich? Aren't all retired people FI by definition? I don't think that poor guy down the block will think he should rob grandma, especially if she's barely making it on US social security. I do agree with the concept that we'll have decreasing need for humans working, and wages should trend to drop because of that. We will almost certainly have to move to a guaranteed living income, as some Scandinavian are flirting with. The other trend I struggle to understand is that there are sectors of the economy with persistent labor shortages, but little clear direction. Two areas: advanced and computer operated manufacturing, welding, and software engineers. The us has really poor educational opportunities to get people into the manufacturing jobs we have, and those that look good for the future in hi tech manu. seem to be the most in demand. Secondly there is of course the global shortage of programmers. This not for "basic IT" really, where someone can "just" use packaged software to build an application - that seems to be only under a small amount of pressure to find people. I'm thinking that it's the people that write software from scratch, software engineers. Why isn't everyone who is technical/math/scientific and needs pursing this? In Seattle there are more than 10,000 open jobs in this area, all with great money, benefits. Not everyone is really able to do these two kinds of jobs. But please consider getting training in one of these areas if you are trying to figure out the future.