Future of work

Travelling across U.S. cities and parts of Europe, economics analyst and writer Kyla Scanlon sought to understand why many Americans feel poorer or left behind despite strong economic indicators. Across cities like Berkeley, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and states like New Hampshire, New York, and Florida, a consistent sentiment prevailed: prosperity exists, but ordinary people can’t feel it. (While these perspectives are delivered through an American lens, a similar sentiment is likely felt in Canada, where wealth inequality reached record highs in 2025 and continues to widen.) 

According to Scanlon, a primary theme driving this sentiment is the gap in wealth between generations, which is creating unequal economic outcomes. Younger generations face aging infrastructure, unaffordable housing, and unstable work, while older generations hold most of the wealth (often through stocks, homes, or political influence). Wealth increasingly lives in less tangible concepts—such as financial markets, AI development, and digital infrastructure—rather than in people’s lived experiences of everyday life. Instead, people are coping with rising housing costs, higher levels of student debt, fragile public services, and declining trust in institutions. 

The future of work in the era of AI is another dominant theme discussed in the article. The technology is often marketed as job-replacing rather than life-enhancing, raising fears about meaning, dignity, and career pathways, especially if entry-level work disappears. Experts warn that reskilling and training alone won’t fix the problem, given that society must preserve purpose and security as work evolves. The conversation deepens into the geopolitical race to build and invest in AI as server farms become an increasing focal point of the economy. At the same time, career and skills investment of college graduates decline.  

Housing is another unrelenting pressure point. In states like New Hampshire and Florida, affordability limits family formation, mobility, and economic dynamism. High-cost housing locks older people in place and younger people out.  

Outside the U.S., Scanlon found that Prague and Ireland offered a foil. These two cities showed visible competence through functional transit and walkable streets, using public space as proof of collective care. In these places, prosperity was tangible, not hidden.

Scanlon concludes that America’s crisis is not about a lack of wealth, but about where it lives. When prosperity becomes invisible—locked in servers, markets, and private enclaves—trust erodes. What people long for is not more GDP, but systems they can see, feel, and believe in. Visible maintenance builds trust, and trust is the foundation on which real, shared prosperity stands.