A toxic mix of pain and devastation

This week I was asked to debate whether AI should be used in financial counselling.

I was on the 'yes' side.

Sitting in front of me were 1,000 financial counsellors, arms folded, all thinking the same thing:

This bloke's trying to replace me with a robot.

And who can blame them?

Still, this horror movie has been playing for a hundred years, and it always ends the same way:

The job apocalypse has been "five years away" … for the past one hundred years.

Case in point:

In 2016, the so-called godfather of AI, Nobel prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, declared we should stop training radiologists immediately. He said it was ‘clearly obvious’ that AI would replace them within five years.

Today?

There is a shortage of radiologists. Last year there were 4,000 unfilled roles in the US alone.

Why?

Well, AI became their assistant …  not their replacement.

Which brings us to today’s hype cycle:

The founder of ChatGPT is warning that AI will be so devastating we'll all need a government handout to survive. I’m highly sceptical … at least in the next five years. I don't know about you, but my interactions with the chatbots remind me of this meme:

Wife: "Did you do the dishes?"

Me: "Yes."

Wife: "Why are they still dirty?"

Me: "You're right to push back on that. I didn't actually do them."

Wife: "I hate you."

Me: "You're absolutely right. This one's on me. Ready to clean?"

The fact is that these language models are three years old: they're still techno toddlers.

Will AI get better?

No doubt. Hundreds of billions of dollars that are currently being invested in AI says it will.

Yet here's what the AI hype merchants miss entirely:

For all the technological advancements, we are lonelier than we have ever been. Anxiety diagnoses have doubled in a decade. Two thirds of us don't trust what we read online, as AI fakes flood our feeds.

We spend our nights sitting alone, heads down, scrolling on our dopamine casinos.

We are starving for human connection.

Which is why a financial counsellor, a real one, sitting across from you, listening without judgement, helping you make sense of your money when your life is falling apart …

Cannot be automated.

AI will crunch the numbers, but it won't hold your hand when everything goes sideways.

And the more artificial the world gets, the more valuable people who actually give a damn become.

Tread Your Own Path!

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Your Questions & Answers

• New Tax Changes Could Create A Toxic Mix of Pain and Devastation

• What’s Your Take on the NDIS?

• Barefoot the Crooner

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New Tax Changes Could Create A Toxic Mix of Pain and Devastation

Hi Scott,

I'm just reading about the government's proposed changes to capital gains tax in next week's budget. It seems like utter madness from the Labor government that will hit your readers hardest. One expert called it "a toxic mix of pain and devastation" that will force landlords to sell investment properties. And they're doing this during a cost of living crisis when research found that nine per cent of mortgage holders would default if there are one or two more rate hikes. Clearly making things more expensive for landlords like me will make us jack up our rents. It's just commonsense!

Terry

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Hi Terry,

I'm not sure if you're from the housing lobby, the Liberal Party, or if you've just stumbled onto my column for the first time in 22 years and haven't worked out that I've spent the better part of two decades arguing against negative gearing and every other form of taxpayer-funded landlord welfare.

For far too long, first home buyers have had the footprints of investors on their backs.

A toxic mix of pain and devastation?

Please.

If that's what happens to your investment portfolio after a few tax tweaks, you've got bigger problems than I can help with.

As for the figure of '9% of mortgage holders at risk of defaulting if there were one or two more rate hikes' ... well, I have a few things to say about that.

First, if they're that skint, they should sell their homes immediately and get out of the market while they still can. They don't own their home. The bank does.

Second, these people most certainly are not my readers.

We're way too smart for that.

What’s Your Take on the NDIS?

Hi Scott,

I'd be keen to hear your thoughts on the NDIS cuts. There are so many strong opinions in my media feeds that this is either … killing people with disabilities, or finally fixing the people taking advantage of the system. What are your hot takes? How does the government either recontextualise the spending as future saving or argue that people with a disability should pay for their own care?

Frank

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Hi Frank

I fully support the founding idea of the NDIS: as a nation, we look after people with profound and life-changing disabilities. How we treat the most vulnerable in our society says everything about the values of our country.

However, it's been incredibly badly run.

You kind of expect that with the government, but this has been a cock up of monumental proportions.

There are people who gamed the system and got in early who arguably don't need the support, and now there are genuine cases who are getting knocked back. And then there are billions of dollars of rampant fraud … and our politicians just shrug their shoulders?!

That is not acceptable.

My view?

The entire system needs to be redesigned so it fulfils its original aims. We need to weed out every single fraudster, make them pay back the money they stole, and put the worst of them in the slot.

And, at the same time, make sure the people who genuinely need services get them.

No more shrugging. The NDIS is too important.

Barefoot the Crooner

G'day Scott,

My wife and I read your book, applied the steps, and came out the other side owning everything. Not a cent owed to anyone. You changed the course of our lives, and our kids' lives. Thank you. If you'd been as famous in the 80s as Leif Garrett, I would've had your poster on my wall instead of his. 

We're two years from retirement and we've just seen a financial planner, a proper one, Master in Financial Planning, member of the FPA. First thing he said? "You've read Barefoot's book, haven't you?" He's been fantastic. But here's where my gut started talking. He's recommending we ditch our low-fee industry super fund for an ASX-listed fund charging $8,000 a year in fees, with a promise we'll be $100,000 better off over three years. My wife is front row at the Leif Garrett concert, screaming "I Was Made for Dancing." Me? I'm still in the car park. Is this too good to be true?

Lenny

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Hi Lenny,

So I googled Leif Garrett. He was quite the dreamboat in his day. Thirty years on though, he looks as washed up as ... me.

Having read and applied Barefoot, YOU are the dreamboat, Lenny. You've done all the hard work yourself and you're now on track for an awesome retirement.

And since you've already mentioned me, feel free to forward this to your financial planner.

In fact, I'll address this to him directly.

Dude.

You and I both know that the only thing you can guarantee Lenny is reducing his nest egg by $24,000 in fees over three years (and then keeping the siphon going on and on until he dies!).

His low-cost industry fund offers dozens of investment options. You could build him an index fund portfolio inside his existing fund and put the $8,000 back in his pocket where it belongs.

Lenny's wife is front row at the Leif Garrett concert ... and you're in the back, rifling through her handbag. Even Leif had more dignity than that. And he's been arrested. Twice.

Thanks for reading,

Scott.