HG Wells, But Backwards

I read lots of economic press. And for the past year, everyone has been writing this or that about the various proposals for universal basic income, or UBI. I am no exception with my back of the napkin math showing that that the US government is already paying everyone an average of about 3000 USD per year, just not evenly distributed. On top of that, MMT (modern monetary theory) has been making the rounds in an attempt to prove that the US government doesn't really have budget constraints because it controls and borrows in its own currency - which they are right about, in a sense.

So all this has been swirling around in my head and I realized the other day that we are headed for the world described by HG Wells in the Time Machine, but backwards.

In Wells' story, the beautiful people are stagnant and the ugly, underground people are the ones making things happen.

What I see happening in our world is actually the opposite. The stagnant people are turning into the people of WALL-E, blissed out on their drugs and scooters, and the people out there making things happen are turning into the aspirational lifestyle models on insta.