What Happens Next after AI has Taken Our Jobs?

I cannot make any money!

I had plenty of time to think about it all night, but every day Eleven o’clock am was a critical time. Most people reading this blog, if lucky, knows nothing about what I am discussing. If one has a wife and two children and no place to stay other than a flee bag motel room, then what I’m saying may be familiar. If one has not drunk of this cup, however, grasping my experiences may be very helpful. I cannot venture further in explaining why it happened, because it came upon me so quickly until I have no memory to explain the reason.

Sucess is Temporary

I was running a successful business. I owned my home, had two relatively new cars, and suddenly when I thought that I had the “tiger by the tail” it all miraculously slipped away. Poof! My very prestigious contracts were gone. The jobs market at that time were crazy, and my being a 56-year-old educated black man did not help me one iota. I was too qualified to get a low paying job and not connected enough to smoothly make a transition to a job that would support all my needs.

At the top of my game, I had elevated myself, I thought, from living in the hood. My children were accustomed to living in racially mixed neighborhoods.  I owned at that time two offices, one in a very prestigious area, the other in the hood. I surmised that it was because of where my family were living, my children rarely visited my business office in the hood. They occasionally visited my office near where we lived.

Children Give Off Vibes,Good and Bad

While I was still on foot, my children on one occasion had an opportunity to visit my office in the hood. I stopped by a small market in Compton; California and I expected my children to instinctively follow me into the market as they had usually done. I did not even notice it for a moment, but my two little boys continued sitting in the car. I immediately turned around and asked, “What’s up guys”? The looks on their little faces were fear. My oldest son said, “There are a lot of black people in there! At that moment I thought O Lord what I have done.  I explained to them that they were black also, and there was no reason to fear black people. They said that in school they had learned to be fearful of going to places where there were all black people. I was shocked, but more angry at myself than at the system that had trained them to believe this garbage. I felt like I had failed them. This was also a wake up call.

Living Just Enough For The City

All hell broke loose! I had a few dollars in my savings account, many unpaid invoices, but not enough money ample to cover my lifestyle. My house was foreclosed upon. My cars were repossessed; my credit was destroyed.   I mentioned to my wife how afraid that my children were of being around a lot of black people. She and I both believed that it would be better if we could rent an apartment or small house in a predominantly racially mixed neighborhood. Although I had many unpaid invoices from my businesses, my credit was in shambles. The foreclosure was taboo when it came to renting real estate.

The application fees to rent property in decent neighborhoods were atrocious. One hundred dollars for myself and my wife, or $200 was excessive, especially when all of rental applications were being denied, with no refunds.  Before falling from grace, we were living in a three-thousand square foot house, and we had many items. We were forced to place them in storage. Most of our personal items were lost becuse we just could not raise the money in time enough to save our wares. This was very painful for our children, but because they had seen better times, we were able to convince them that better days were ahead. It was very real, however, we were basically homeless. Try buying an automobile while living in a motel. Somehow we found an auto dealer to sell us a car. This provided some relief.

At first, we started living in very nice motels close to where we had been living to keep our children near their schools. We were convinced during that season that living in Los Angeles was like living in Viet-Nam during the war. Drive by shootings were quite common. We believed that we would eventually find a place to stay somewhat near where we had been living. Things became worse, however. We were stuck living in motels.  My wife was working, but it was extremely difficult for her to get to work. She tried the Metrolink, van pools, carpools, steamships, covered wagons, boats, buses, or whatever she could use to get to work. It was not funny when it was occurring, but we now sometimes laugh about all we went through. It was a mother, "shut your mouth"!

Use Whatever You Have

I always kept one of my old office computers with me in the motel rooms. There were no laptops, smartphones, or tablets at that time. I possessed a cell phone, but back in the day cell phones were not like Smart phones. They were very expensive to use, and limited in doing anything other than making and receiving very expensive calls. Eventually I was forced to stop using the cell phone. The computer that I carried with me was a desktop computer. Connecting it to a motel phone line through dial-up was crazy. There was no WIFI, etc. Nonetheless, I did everything that I could to reside in motels that allowed a computer connection.

My computer became a tool for my livelihood. I started looking for means of making money. I was not totally computer savvy. I could not write code, so I had to rely on other people’s money-making opportunities.  I can remember clicking on advertisements many days and nights attempting to make money. Most programs only paid fractions of a penny per click for viewing advertisements. Other programs required joining other, mostly income-generating programs that eventually billed my credit cards because I was, many times, remiss to cancel the programs after the trial periods. It was a holy mess.

Always Think it Through

I started thinking about creating my own program. I created a very lucrative program using multilevel marketing. I called it Online persuasion. It went very well. People were paying me diligently to participate in the program. Later, my legal knowledge, however, alerted me after thinking it through, that maybe my program could be interpreted as a Ponzi Scheme. I just wasn't sure so I immediately closed it down and returned all of revenue acquired back to the people who had invested in my program. They were disappointed, but I was honest with them. I was scared. They understood, thank God. I did not desire to add more kindling to a fire already burning poised to consume my entire family. I remembered how the law worked at that time regarding Ponzi schemes. It was selective in what was a Ponzi scheme, or what was not. Amway got away with it, but others bit the dust.

Always on Time

I finally hit paydirt. I discovered a very lucrative program designed by a very young man from New Jersey. I was really kicking it with this program. In fact, I learned to make more money using the program than the owner. He became very angry with me. He banned me from his program. He accused me of Spamming, althoug I acquired ALL of my recruits through my person script, and elbow greese. Ouch! What could I do?

Through the grace of God, the invoices from my prior business relationships continued to provide us income, but they never came when we really wanted them to come, but they always came in the nick of time. I started to think about what some had previously said about God. “He may not always be there when you want him, but he’s always on time”. This truly made me a believer.

Booyaw!

Later my older son met a friend. His friend’s father owned some property in Los Angeles. By this time Los Angeles had cooled down from the drive-by shootings. We were still skeptical, nonetheless. Eureka!  We found a place to stay. Immediately, I started working on a program called Dial4dough. It gave me great hope. People loved the program. It helped many people, but I was not able to keep it going the growing pangs were enormous. I reluctantly was forced to close it down for a variety of reasons. One reason was I became ill, and was hospitilized for a period, but the lesson is learned.  

I had my turn in the barrel, but I learned exactly what people needed to survive when out of work. Our employment level is now at a critical mass, and only getting worse. Many people are now living in their cars, and motor homes. Thank God I had some income during my down season. Everyone is in the window of vulnerability, whether you are a butcher, baker, or candle stick maker. AI can take your job, or your job can be eliminated by people that do not give a rats bootay about you.

Technology Changes Things

Technology is now more advanced, but the need for human income is apparent.. This is why I am writing this blog this morning. I have two very computer savvy sons. One is an extremely talented coder. My other son is also extremely talented in computer technology and systems management. These are the ingredients required to put Dial4dough back on the map. Yesterday, I asked for their help to once again reignite Dial4dough. I am a very old man with a lot of ideas. Maybe I am just dreaming.

The Dial4dough concept came to my mind many years ago. I was a very young man at that time. I worked for Western Union Telegraph. At that time I was living in Los Angeles when Western Union gave me a choice to relocate to Carson Nevada or lose my job. I immediately found another job. Getting a job was a piece of cake for me. I had great skills learn from being in the military. Western Union stated that the company was becoming more centralized because of new, advanced technology. This is when I visualized a world where computers and robotics would eventually replace the human workforce. This was in the year 1972. I have been fearful of this taking place since then. Now here in 2025 it is right on our doorsteps. Maybe God has given me inspiration to do something about it.

Loyalty

In past seasons companies relied upon their employees in more ways than one. They expected them to perform the jobs for which they paid them to do. There was something hidden in the relationship, however. Companies also expected their employees to buy their products. Sometimes employees received great incentives to purchase products from their employers. If you worked for General Motors, you drove a Chevy, Caddi, Olds, Pontiac or Buick. If you worked for Proctor and Gamble, then you were washing with Tide, or cooking with Crisco. Employers depended upon their employees, and their employee's families and friends to purchase their wares. Things are different in this season.

Since AI, robotics, computers, and only God knows what, the need for human participation in the sales process has changed drastically. Humans have become buyers exclusively. AI, algorythms, or bots cannot make purchases, but they can increase production to the nth power. Human labor has become less intensive in all aspects, whether in the jobs market or not. Maybe it is not as difficult for humans to earn a living also, as once before. It is just a matter of how it is approached. All businesses require humans to purchase their wares.

Companies use extensive and expensive advertising approaches to increase their profit margins. Advertising dollars being spent are less effective if there are less humans purchasing their products, goods, services, and ideas. If AI has taken away the need for human labor, then companies are now forced to develop mechanisms that makes good sense, to provide the resources to humans to enable them to purchase this mass production enabled by AI.

The Numbers Don’t Lie; People Do.

Let’s look at the numbers. If an employee works, I mean really, he works for eight hours a day, few can earn enough money to live. The minimum income in California is about 15 dollars an hour. Although employees rarely work eight hours a day, their minimum monthly income can be expected to be about $2500 a month. In California, this is not a livable income, especially if you allow for other things associated with working such as transportation, proper attire, lunch, child care, etc.

The Illusive Efforts Required to Earn a Living

If an individual is compensated twenty-five cents for viewing a ten-second advertisement, ones income can change significantly.  If this person views advertisements in this fashion for Eight hours a day, let’s look at the monthly income they can expect.

Twenty-five cents for viewing a ten second advertisement for one hour would be calculated as such: There are sixty seconds in a minute. There are 3600 seconds in and hour. If divided by 10 this equals 360. If this person earned .25 cents each time they viewed a ten second advertisement, they would receive $90 each hour. If they worked 8 hours a day, they they would make $720 a day, or $3600 a week. If we multiplied this amount by 4.2 weeks, their monthly income would be $15,120 a month. This is just a tip of the iceberg. This kind of money and more can be generated by one person while never getting off their couch. I understand that this is a hypothetical example, but with the right moves people can make this happen if they understand the importance of this occuring.

If done properly, humans can force businesses to pay these advertising dollars directly to them, instead of paying billions of dollars for advertising to billionaire owned organizations where nothing is paid to the people viewing this massive amount of advertising constantly. It is just a matter of time that this must invariably occur, or the entire system will collaspe, as there will be few people with the wherewithal to purchase the products being offered. People with huge wallets are heartless. They just do not understand. They will drain the system until it is completly dry. They too will eventually belly up, pulling all humanity into the abyss with them if human beings do not wake up.

One would be foolish, however, to believe that all jobs will be taken away by computers, AI, algorythms, bots and the like. Nonetheless, soon companies will realize the importance of providing humans with the financial wherewithal to make purchases from their companies. If not, AI will soon begin eliminating the customer bases of most businessess, destroying their anticipated ROI.

Dial 4 dough understands how to show wise companies the advantage of providing income to humans, and at the same time give humans the incentive to purchase their wares to support the businessess that support them exclusively.

We can allow AI, algorythms, robots, and the like do the heavy lifting, but at the same time provide humans with the incentive, and financial wherewithal to purchase products, goods, services, and ideas from these companies.

Let us not get to the point to what my son once said during our down turn. "Daddy we have ham but no burger, cheese, but no crackers, hot but no dog, peanut but not butter"...

Wake up and smell the coffee, because humans aren't going anywhere!

Just John