By Doug Casey
International Man
February 20, 2026
International Man: Governments and central banks have inflated asset prices for decades-making housing, education, and healthcare unaffordable for many.
Is the "system" designed to turn Millennials and Gen Z into lifelong renters and debt-serfs ? Is there a way out?
Doug Casey: It's a natural consequence of Statism.
First of all, taxes are high and have been increasing for decades. After taxes, you have less money left over to save. And if you do try to save, inflation eats away at the dollars that you put in banks or investments. Worse than that, welfare and government benefits make saving feel unnecessary for many people. They feel they don't need as much because the cradle-to-grave welfare state will cover them. There's a reason why Klaus Schwab famously said, "You'll own nothing and be happy."
A lot of people believe it. This feeling is abetted by schooling, where everyone is inculcated with this collectivist meme. On top of that, the rich are viewed as parasites. And who wants to be a parasite?
This is all caused by State intervention in the economy. Schools almost always teach students that the State is their friend. It's not; it's their enemy. Few Americans are critical thinkers, as New York's election of an avowed Communist shows. The fact that voters in most large cities in the US have elected leftists tells me that the situation is dire.
Take the experience of my friend Walter Block, one of today's greatest living economists, who grew up in New York. Bernie Sanders was his classmate. They were both rabid socialists. Walter became a free-market anarcho-capitalist. Bernie, like almost all their classmates, remained socialist. Most people are programmed by their environments and stay that way, like Bernie. Since trends in motion tend to stay in motion, at least until they arrive at a major crisis, I'm not too optimistic about a change any time soon.
Libertarians, free thinkers, classical liberals, AnCaps, and the like are a tiny minority. And when things become turbulent, we tend to be a very unpopular minority as well.
International Man: We're seeing a collision between AI/automation and a credential-heavy job market. Which parts of today's white-collar economy do you think are most fragile?
Doug Casey: It's common knowledge how smart AI is, and how rapidly it's getting radically better. It's already been several years since AI passed the Turing Test, which basically states that if you're communicating with a computer, and can't tell it's not a human, then it's actually intelligent.
We're way beyond that now. We can talk with video simulations, and we can't tell whether it's a human. AIs are getting better at an accelerating rate as they improve themselves. I have zero doubt that as robotics are perfected, you won't be able to tell androids from people-except that they'll be smarter, stronger, and better looking. We'll soon be living in the world of real Terminators. Hopefully, most of them will be virtuous, not killbots. I suspect many real people will prefer them as mates and love interests, which was a sub-theme of the great movie Blade Runner.
The bright side is that while AI and robotics will destroy huge numbers of jobs-starting now-they'll also level the playing field. A person of less than average intelligence can have AI do things for him that he might otherwise be unable to do. A further benefit is that the world doesn't need paper pushers and cubicle dwellers who are sitting around doing marginally productive labor. Very much like the world no longer needed people working like drones in textile mills 200 years ago, at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
While AI is going to create some major problems in the short run, it's going to be a very good thing after those bumps in the road. Just like the Industrial Revolution itself created problems while vastly improving the world.
International Man: What should a 25-year-old do to build real, durable earning power in the next 5-10 years?
Doug Casey: Ayn Rand answered that question in a speech I heard 40 years ago. When asked, "Miss Rand, what would you do about the poor?", she said: "Don't be one of them!"
I confronted this problem with my friend Matt Smith when we wrote The Preparation. The book explains why young people should avoid college. In fact, it urges them to treat college like the poison that it now is, showing how college has become a serious detriment in almost every way. More importantly, we describe what young men should do instead during the four years between 18 and 22, a time which is critically important, but generally wasted.
We demonstrate-exactly-how a young man can qualify himself with the equivalent of a BA, a BS, and elements of an MBA. That's in addition to learning practical things in a hands-on way. We divide the four years into 16 quarters. The student will learn everything from flying a plane to sailing a boat around Cape Horn to operating heavy equipment. He'll qualify in welding and metalwork in Canada. Cooking at a professional level in Italy. He'll be farming in one quarter and building a house in the next. He'll learn martial arts skills in Thailand, as well as shooting and scuba. You get the idea. It's a productive and busy four years.
The critical thing, since we don't know how the world is going to evolve because of AI, is to become a Renaissance man, enabling students to do anything and go anywhere. To avoid trying to climb a greasy corporate ladder, but build a web where you can reach out in any direction. That's necessary in the world of AI. It's training to be an entrepreneur, and an employer-not an employee.
International Man: The West is running historic deficits while promising expansive entitlements. Do you expect a classic inflationary blow-off, a debt default, or an era of financial repression-and how should young people position their savings for prudence and profit?
Doug Casey: The West has suffered a gigantic bout of collective stupidity by believing that everyone can live at the expense of everyone else. And worse, a moral failure by enforcing socialist and collectivist ideas. As a consequence, there are hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt in the world. It's not academic; some people owe that money to other people. Both the lenders and the borrowers are going to be very unhappy.
Debt isn't always a bad thing. It's fine if it funds productive enterprise and is therefore self-liquidating. But most debt only finances consumption and welfare payments. It's endangering capital that's been saved in past generations, and causing everybody to mortgage their future.
So how's it going to end ? With a collapse of some type. It's hard to predict whether it will be a deflationary default or a hyperinflation. Possibly both at the same time in different parts of the economy.
What should you do about it ? We're looking at an inevitability. It's happening now. By far the most important thing you should do is invest in yourself. Qualify to run your own business, not to be an employee or a cubicle dweller. You need to make a wide variety of skills and knowledge a part of yourself.
The three most important verbs in every language are Be, Do, and Have. Most people get their order backwards. Having money and things is the least important, but most people treat them as the ultimate goal. Your ability to Do will always allow you to Have stuff. Most important, however, is Being-a moral foundation. Having and Doing are really just helpers to Being. But, happily, Being facilitates Having and Doing. Anyway, let's have a discussion on the meaning of life-if any-later.
International Man: Socially, young people are increasingly atomized. Less marriage, fewer kids, more loneliness, more screens. What do you make of this and the future of this trend?
Doug Casey: It was inevitable that things would work out that way. In the past, when everybody lived on a farm, kids were assets; they were necessary. But now that everybody lives in cities, they've been transformed into expensive liabilities. Furthermore, the dispersal of families away from hometowns and across countries means that there are no longer any grandparents or cousins to help bring the kids up.
Since childbearing has always been dangerous, painful, and inconvenient, it's logical that most women, especially in urban environments, take advantage of birth control. And since religion is vanishing from most societies in the West, it's not around to encourage people to be fruitful and multiply. Today's economy also militates against traditional families. As Michael Green recently pointed out, an American couple with two kids needs to earn at least $140,000 to keep from slipping into the lower classes. What's the point of getting married and having kids if that's the case?
The bottom line is that we're in for some huge upsets over the next 10 years. You had best prepare for them.
Reprinted with permission from International Man.