Hi all. I have been interested in post-AGI since the early 2000s. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I didn't think it could arrive this soon. But it could potentially be here by 2030. While we hear a lot about UBI, I think state employment is a better option. Of course basic welfare payments can exist. But for higher pay, good state jobs must be available.
I am a software engineer with a computer science degree, so I have been at the front lines watching this thing gather momentum in the workplace. I'm very interested in economics and the world of work post-AGI during the immediate aftermath when the transition has the potential to be very turbulent or very beneficial. Particularly in Ireland, where I'm from. So I took some time to have Gemini put my ideas into a document.
I wanted to share the general high level ideas with people that are interested in the future of work so you guys could give feedback and maybe consider something similar for your own country.
I plan to get the final document in front of forward thinking politicians to at least get the conversations going. Please have a read of the reddit friendly summary.
# end of fully human written intro and beginning of what Gemini generated based on my inputs and guidance. The following is just a reddit friendly summary of what is in the document.
**The Problem:** There is a fairly convincing argument that AGI is coming. Current estimates suggest that by the early 2030s, up to 200,000 high-skilled Irish roles in Tech, Finance, and Law could be automated. We have two choices: watch the tax base collapse and pay billions in "passive welfare," or do something radical.
**The Proposal: The National Modernization Initiative (NMI)**
Instead of letting our best engineers, architects, and managers emigrate or rot on the dole, the State should become the **"Employer of Choice"** to build a 2030s Ireland that actually works.
### The "Sovereignty Suite" (What we’d actually build):
* **The 30-Minute Nation:** High-frequency automated rail connecting Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Belfast in under 30 mins.
* **Food Independence:** A national network of automated vertical farms for 100% domestic food security.
* **Sovereign Data & Energy:** State-owned AI data centers and 20GW+ of offshore wind to make us Europe’s green energy hub.
* **The Analog Refuge:** Intentional revitalization of Irish villages as low-tech, high-connection sanctuaries for those who want a slower pace of life away from the digital grind.
* **The Digital Twin:** A real-time, open-source simulation of the country to prove every project's cost and plan *before* we spend a cent—no more Children's Hospital-style scandals.
### 💼 A New Way to Work:
* **32-Hour / 4-Day Week:** Standard for all state modernization employees. With AGI doing the heavy lifting, we don't need 40 hours.
* **Philosophers of Change:** Humans are the decision-makers/architects; AI is the implementer. Work follows a natural flow of intense brainstorming vs. leisurely open thinking.
* **Remote-First:** Office attendance is for social cohesion and big planning events, not a mandatory daily grind.
### How do we pay for it? (The "Bridge" Strategy):
* **The Bridge:** Use the **€14bn Apple Tax windfall** and the **Future Ireland Fund** to seed the projects and salaries for the first 5 years.
* **The Loop:** A 2.5% "Productivity Levy" on ultra-automated corporations + charging fees to companies using our world-class state-owned energy/data grids.
* **The Logic:** It costs ~€3.3bn/year to keep these people on welfare. It costs ~€9.7bn (gross) to employ them at high wages, but we get ~€2.8bn back in tax immediately, plus we end up with a country that is energy, food, and data independent.
**TL;DR:** Don't pay people to sit at home while the country's infrastructure is stuck in the 1990s. Use the tax surplus to hire the tech/finance workers displaced by AI to build a high-speed, self-sufficient, 4-day-week Ireland.