I’m a software engineer out of work and I’m not sure what people are supposed to do at this point. Every day there are less and less jobs and more and more applicants. The best thing that can happen is that AI collapses and companies are forced to start hiring like crazy. It’s possible given the leaked OpenAI financials. It’s possible given the rising costs of AI. And it’s possible given these price hikes are likely just the start, because the services are still heavily, very heavily subsidized. But who knows when and how bad things will get worse before they get better.

Trump has also fucked us beyond belief. He’s stealing every dollar he can for himself and his friends in public view and no one is doing a thing to stop it. It’s our money they are siphoning into the pockets of corrupt corporations. No one cares. There have been big rallies for years, but like I’ve said for just as long, protests do not do a damn thing. In recent history they have barely tipped the needle. They have not been effective for decades and politicians know this. They are allowed to steal and ignore us and we just take it. It’s not the America I know anymore. The America I knew was one of doing what’s right, no matter the cost.

I’ve somewhat recently written my state lawmaker, the EFF, and major state new outlets to raise awareness of an issue with AI. It is that companies are allowed to systematically deny and obscure things like refunds using their AI customer support systems, but consumers cannot do the same. So we are forced to fight with robots that are designed to make the process as difficult as possible, but if we used an AI agent to interact with their AI then we’d get banned. So the rich and powerful again get to gain even more power over regular people. And you know what the responses were to my messages? Nothing. The EFF acknowledged, but the 9 others or so… not a word. That is to say, I have no representation. But I pay taxes.

This is not the America I know.