Why Billionaire Elon Musk Thinks Saving Money Won’t Matter In The Future

Last Updated:December 18, 2025, 15:12 IST

Elon Musk’s latest remarks have reignited debate about his long-standing predictions on how technology will reshape money, work and the future economy.

Elon Musk’s wealth crosses $600 billion. (Photo Credit: X)

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has once again reignited debate about the future of wealth, work, and human purpose after suggesting that saving money may eventually become unnecessary. Responding to billionaire investor Ray Dalio’s endorsement of the Trump administration’s new ‘Trump Accounts’ scheme, Musk said that while the idea of offering newborns seed investment is well-intentioned, it may be irrelevant in a world transformed by artificial intelligence and robotics.

At the centre of this argument is his long-running claim that humanity is heading towards an era of “universal high income", where poverty disappears, and traditional labour loses its central place in economic life.

Musk’s comments, made in a post on X, were characteristic of his broader worldview: that technology is advancing at such speed that economic norms built on scarcity will give way to abundance.

His statement has drawn both curiosity and scepticism, raising questions about the assumptions underlying his predictions and whether such a world is remotely within reach.

What Musk Said In Response To The Trump Accounts Initiative

On Thursday, Musk responded to Dalio’s praise of ‘Trump Accounts’, a new federal initiative offering a one-time government contribution of $1,000 into investment accounts for newborns and young Americans.

While Dalio and Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies, welcomed the programme as a tool to encourage early investment and long-term savings, Musk took a sharply different position.

“It is certainly a nice gesture of the Dells, but there will be no poverty in the future and so no need to save money. There will be universal high income," he wrote on X.

Why Musk Believes Traditional Saving Will Become Obsolete

Musk’s reasoning rests on a single premise: that AI and robotics will soon produce goods and services so efficiently that scarcity, the foundation of modern economics, will fade. If production becomes near-infinite and overwhelmingly machine-driven, Musk argues, money as a tool to regulate access will lose importance.

This is also why he distinguishes between Universal Basic Income (UBI) and what he calls “universal high income". While UBI guarantees a minimum living standard, universal high income imagines a world where high living standards become effortless because machines can produce abundance at negligible cost. As he put it previously, money itself could become “irrelevant", much like oxygen, something available to all without deliberate allocation.

Musk has repeatedly said that, in such a scenario, saving becomes unnecessary because individuals would not need to accumulate financial buffers to weather crises, pay for essentials, or secure long-term stability. Instead, technology would ensure that everything required for well-being is easily accessible.

What Musk Has Said About AI, Work, And Abundance Over The Years

Musk’s latest remarks are consistent with years of increasingly bold predictions about automation and human labour.

In multiple interviews, including his appearance on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, Musk said working would become optional within 10 to 20 years, possibly even sooner. He described work as something future generations may treat “like a hobby", similar to growing vegetables for pleasure rather than necessity.

At the US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum in November, he argued that work would become “optional" as AI and robots take over the bulk of production and services. There, he also claimed that money itself would become “irrelevant" as automation eliminates scarcity. As he put it, “AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty."

In October 2025, responding to a post about Amazon potentially automating hundreds of thousands of warehouse roles, he wrote that “AI and robots will replace all jobs", and that work will be voluntary for those who wish to pursue it.

His comments have followed a consistent pattern: a belief that once AI surpasses human intelligence and humanoid robots reach mass deployment, machines will take over physical, cognitive, and even emotional labour. Goods would then become “close to free", he said in a March interview, shifting society’s challenge from economic survival to existential meaning.

The Scale Of Automation Musk Believes Is Coming

Musk’s predictions often sound extreme, but he argues they reflect an inevitable trajectory. Companies across manufacturing, logistics, and services are rapidly adopting automation. Amazon’s warehouse robots, TCS and Accenture’s AI-driven restructuring, and the rise of autonomous vehicles all point toward accelerated technological displacement.

Studies from the World Economic Forum, Labour Organisation, and McKinsey indicate significant shifts: millions of jobs may be reshaped or displaced, with advanced economies seeing the highest exposure to AI-driven disruption. Musk interprets these trends as the early stages of an economic transformation rather than incremental change.

He envisions a world where billions of humanoid robots, such as Tesla’s Optimus prototype, produce nearly everything humans need.

The Skepticism And Pushback His Statement Has Drawn

Musk’s sweeping predictions have understandably attracted criticism. Social media users pointed out the disconnect between his advice against saving and his own net worth, which recently crossed $600 billion following news of SpaceX’s potential public listing.

Others questioned the claim of universal high income, noting that the definition of “high" is relative and shifts with social expectations. Some asked what incentive would drive production in a world where everything “costs nothing". Others argued that even if material poverty disappears, psychological perceptions of deprivation—the poverty mindset—may persist.

Why Musk’s Vision Does Not Align Easily With India’s Realities

For India, Musk’s prediction of a work-optional world is difficult to map onto current economic and cultural conditions. Work in India is deeply tied to identity, dignity, and family responsibility. Even in urban centres, employment is a marker of stability and respect, while large populations depend on daily wages for survival.

India’s economy is also anchored in affordable human labour. Automation at the scale Musk imagines is neither economically feasible nor culturally intuitive across much of the country. Welfare systems, too, are not designed to support a population disengaged from work.

This does not mean India is immune to automation. AI may reduce workloads, streamline processes, and introduce greater flexibility in certain sectors. But a fully work-optional, abundance-driven society remains far from India’s immediate horizon.

Bottom Line

Musk’s claim that saving will become unnecessary is rooted in his belief in a rapidly approaching age of abundance. Whether that vision materialises remains uncertain, but it has sparked important questions about how societies should prepare for technological upheaval.

For now, the world he describes sits somewhere between prediction and possibility: a future dependent not only on technological capability but also on how economies, cultures, and governments adapt to the profound shifts AI and robotics promise.

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