4 More Months Until It Begins...

In the first 5 months of 2025 alone, US employers announced nearly 700,000 job cuts, an 80% spike from last year. That's over 4,600 people losing their jobs every single day. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced a massive downward correction of over 250,000 jobs for a single month. Things are racing in the wrong direction, and 4 months from now, it's January. And if you're not paying attention, you'll wake up unemployed, broke, and alone. And I don't mean that as a random list of three things. I mean that as three of the biggest avoidable threats facing men right now. AI is coming for half of all white-collar jobs. Not factory work this time, office jobs, analysts, coders, even lawyers. Meanwhile, continued deficit spending is causing inflation to quietly gut your buying power. Housing is out of reach, and some analysts are predicting either a serious market correction or outright recession in the coming year. And while all of this is happening, men are retreating. Nearly 20% of men in their late 20s still live with their parents, and a huge number of them aren't even having sex. The warning signs are stacking up. AI, inflation, market crash risk, male loneliness. Consider this the alarm bell and the game plan. We're going to map out the problem and solution in four easy parts, and do not skip part four. That one may be the most invisible and at the same time the most important of all the threats. Part one, AI is coming for your job. JP Morgan economists warn AI could create a jobless recovery, where economic growth occurs, but white-collar jobs never come back. Analysts estimate AI puts 15 to 30% of jobs in developed economies at risk. That's tens of millions of people. And it was Ford's CEO, one of the largest employers in the world, who said AI could wipe out half of all white-collar jobs in America. Half. That's analysts, coders, paralegals, marketers, entire departments, just gone. And the public already knows it. A Reuters-Ipsos poll found that 71% of Americans fear AI will permanently replace workers. Here's why that's especially dangerous for men. Our identity is tied to our ability to produce, to provide, and to bring home resources. When that gets ripped away, it's not just an economic crisis, it's a crisis of meaning. But the truth is, no one really knows where AI is going to go from here. While the CEO of Ford may believe half of all jobs are about to vanish, every new technology throughout history has wiped out old jobs, only to make way for new jobs. No one laments the loss of lamplighters or the guy that used to shovel all the horse We simply look forward to a whole set of new possibilities from electricity and cars. So far, humans have always adapted. We are, in fact, the most dominant apex predator the world has ever seen for one reason. We're the most adaptable. AI might be a threat down the road, but as of today, it is a tool. Arguably, the most incredible tool we've ever had access to. And like every disruptive tool in history before it, the people who master it the fastest end up pulling ahead of everyone else. At Impact Theory, we're proving that we can develop video games about three to five times faster than we could just three years ago, thanks to AI. If you want to win, stop focusing on what AI is going to take from you and look at what AI is going to give you. There are five primary reasons why people work full stop and AI can improve all of them if you know how to create opportunities with it. Here are the five reasons we work whether we know it or not. One, money. Access to resources, security, and the ability to provide. Two, autonomy. Control over your own destiny instead of being controlled by somebody else. That is massive. Three, mastery. Self-development, the power of just getting better and moving forward in life. Four, meaning. The belief that what you do actually matters. And five, purpose. Simply put, the pursuit of goals. If you decide to use AI instead of worrying about being used by it, AI can accelerate every one of those. Meta just offered one of the world's top AI engineers a billion-dollar compensation package. That is the power of being great at something that the world values. You suppose that guy is worried about AI taking people's jobs? Huh, I'm going to guess not. And if you can't beat them, you can at least invest in them. You don't have to predict the future, you just have to recognize when it arrives. We're almost certainly in an AI bubble right now, but as long as you focus on the sector as a whole and not any one company, odds are you'll make a good return if you have the patience to stay in for a decade plus. The world is changing fast, for sure, but no matter how fast or how scary that change might be, there's never an excuse for tapping out. There is always a path forward. If you're distracted right now, stop and hear me. There is always a path forward no matter how much the deck is stacked against you, but only if you're willing to find it. And to the people who believe AI is going to replace all jobs, fine. Maybe you're right. But you can still be the last one that gets replaced by being the most valuable now. The longer you keep generating revenue, the longer you buy yourself time to adapt to the world changing. Something will come after AI. Panicking now is not going to change that. If truly all jobs disappear someday, that's a tomorrow problem. Right now, today, your job is simple. Master AI and use it in pursuit of your goals. No one can control what period of time they're born into. And if you're born into a moment like now where things are stacked against men, that's still no excuse to completely detach. You can still win. Now, AI might be a tomorrow problem that you can master, but there is a today problem that is crippling you. And if you don't address it immediately, nothing else is going to matter. So, welcome to part two. The American dream is mathematically dead. Housing affordability is now the worst it's been in more than 30 years. For the average man under 35, the American dream is mathematically out of reach. The US is short nearly 4.7 million homes. That's a gap so big that even record levels of construction would not be able to close it. And add to that an insane amount of reckless government spending that creates inflation, one of the most destructive forces in the universe, and now the already ridiculous housing prices just keep going higher, locking young people out of the housing market entirely. The scale of this tragedy cannot be overstated. Housing is the one asset that people intuitively understand. And assets are the only thing that protect you from the devastating effects of inflation. And now inflation and terrible regulations have made housing impossible. If you thought redlining was evil and stopped black people from getting into property and accumulating generational wealth, wait until you see the knock-on effect of pricing entire generations out of the property market and then hitting them with record high inflation. According to Truflation, from 2020 to 2025, inflation has been more than 25%. That is government theft by another name. It's wealth redistribution from everyone to the wealthy. It is an economic apocalypse, but it happens just slowly enough that people complain and then keep voting for the same moronic policies that drive deficit spending. History is not going to judge us kindly. Here is the hard truth. You didn't cause this injury, but only you can do something about it. No politician is going to save you. Not a Republican, not a Democrat, not anyone. Both parties are addicted to deficit spending and deficit spending is what causes inflation and makes housing impossible for you to afford. Both sides of the aisle will keep printing, borrowing, and inflating assets until the currency buckles. And instead of waking up and solving the problem, 62% of young people between 18 and 29 now hold a favorable view of one of the most murderous economic structures in history, socialism. So, if housing isn't going to be the lifeline that saves you from inflation and people are increasingly in favor of socialism, which is essentially infinite inflation, what's left? How do we protect ourselves? The answer is simple. You must own assets. It does not matter that you didn't cause the problem. It doesn't matter that the game is rigged against you. If you don't get into assets, you will lose. And right now, despite all of the chaos, you've got a once-in-a-lifetime chance. First, there's AI. Even if we are in a bubble right now, the broad category of AI is going to completely reshape how the world works. Investing in the space as a whole is like buying railroads in the 1800s or the internet in the 1990s. Even with the booms and busts, the long arc will bend towards massive value creation. Second, there's Bitcoin and crypto. This is a whole new financial system that is being built right now in real time. Yes, it's volatile. I get that. Yes, it's controversial, though less so by the day. But for the first time in history, you have a decentralized store of value that can't be inflated and a parallel payment system that's decentralized and thus is impossible to stop. Even China couldn't stop Bitcoin. And third, there's the age-old opportunity of the stock market. For all of its corruption, all of its abuse, it remains a modern miracle. Over the last 200 years, despite wars, depressions, and political dysfunction, global equities have outpaced inflation and created compounding generational wealth. As I like to say, you should be mad as hell that you're being forced to gamble in the stock market to avoid the punishing effects of inflation, but at least you've got an option with a proven track record of success. So, while you may not be able to save the system, you can certainly save yourself. And if you play your cards right, you can define a new American dream. But beware, the markets are not for short-term investors or for the faint of heart. So, welcome to part three. There's recession risk. Moody's, one of the world's most respected credit rating agencies, warns the US economy is on the precipice of a recession, pointing to consistent job losses and downward payroll revisions. Adding fuel to the fire, Deloitte, one of the world's largest accounting firms, now projects a recession beginning at the end of 2025 with GDP falling nearly 2% in 2026 and unemployment hitting 6% Apollo Global's chief economist puts the odds of recession at one in four by mid-2026 and says stagflation, not just a recession, is the real threat. Even the New York Fed's own model gives us a 29% chance of recession within 12 months. That's nearly double the historic baseline. This is obviously a moment of tremendous uncertainty, but uncertainty is not an excuse for paralysis. The future is knowable and you will always have to act despite imperfect information. But most don't and that makes taking action in uncertain times the perfect way to separate yourself from the masses who will be destroyed by inflation. If you sit on the sidelines because you're scared of an AI bubble or nervous about a looming recession, you are guaranteed the worst possible outcome. Inflation will quietly eat you alive. You might dodge a market correction, but you will also miss the 10 days when the market surges forward. According to JP Morgan market analysis, missing just the 10 best days in the stock market over a 20-year period drastically lowers your overall returns. This is why the common adage is that time in the market beats time in the market. Don't try to outsmart the market. Keep enough cash on hand that you never need to panic sell, dollar cost average in, and hold a broad portfolio of high-quality assets. Doing it that way, you're never going to be a hero on Reddit's Wall Street bets, but you're also not going to go broke. And remember, there's no way to dodge inflation other than owning assets. Huh, I want to beat that point to death. Doing nothing is how you end up being part of the middle class that gets yanked down into poverty. Now, there are plenty of people with good ideas on how to handle owning a broad basket of smart assets. I've talked endlessly about Ray Dalio. So, here let me walk you through another incredible investor, Lynn Alden's portfolio strategy. It's what she calls the three pillars portfolio. Pillar number one, profitable, reasonably priced equities. This is roughly 60%. This is your growth engine. Domestic and global stocks with real earnings, strong balance sheets, and a history of rewarding shareholders. Think of companies with 10-plus years of dividend growth and sustainable payout ratios. These are the firms that weather storms and keep compounding. Even in inflationary periods, strong equities with reinvested dividends build wealth. Pillar two, cash equivalents. This is going to be roughly 10% of your portfolio. This is your defensive buffer. Short-term bonds, TIPS, or cash equivalent ETFs. These are never going to make you rich, but they're highly liquid and they give you stability and optionality. When recession hits and liquidity evaporates, this is what keeps you safe and lets you buy when others are panicking. Pillar three, energy, commodities, and hard monies. This is going to be roughly 30% of your portfolio. This is your inflation shield. Energy producers, commodity giants, and hard stores of value like gold, silver, and Bitcoin. These thrive in stagflationary environments exactly like where the world may be headed to right now. When currencies weaken and governments debase, these are the assets that hold or even increase in value. Now, the genius of this approach is diversification and adaptability. Each pillar is designed to excel in a different macro environment, growth, contraction, or inflation. Together, they make your portfolio resilient across cycles. So, despite all of the uncertainty that we're all facing right now, don't sit around too scared to take action. If you're waiting for the perfect time to start investing, it's never going to come. There is no such thing as the perfect time. And while you wait, inflation is just gobbling up your purchasing power. The antidote to uncertainty is not trying to guess the future. It's being prepared for any future. As Ray Dalio calls it, you want an all-weather fund. You can't control what happens to the economy in 2026. And for all the noise that people will make predicting it, myself included, the reality is that no one really knows. So, unless you plan to make trading your full-time job, come up with an all-weather strategy like Lyn Alden's three-pillar portfolio, and get in for the long-term. That way, whether tariffs usher in an economic apocalypse, AI goes up or down, or the economy goes up and to the right, you're protected against the government continuing to do stupid and debasing the dollar through deficit spending. Plus, ironically, if you get your money right, you can begin to protect against what might be the worst threat of them all. We'll get right back to the show in a moment, but first, I want to tell you about the protein powder that I am obsessed with. The things that people normally eat are loaded with artificial flavors, synthetic vitamins, and ingredients you can't even pronounce. It's not a food, it's a chemistry experiment. But, Paleo Valley bone broth protein is totally different. It's made from actual grass-fed beef bones, not synthetic lab creations. One scoop gives you 13 g of real protein that your body actually recognizes. It's fun to eat, it feels good, it is literally like an ice cream treat. And the collagen is naturally occurring, it's not synthetically added. This is how nutrition worked for thousands of years before we decided to process everything into a powder. You've got chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel, and unflavored options, all minimally processed. My personal favorite is the chocolate. It is absolutely delicious and it's made from organic cacao. And right now, Paleo Valley is running an insane deal. Buy one, get one free on bone broth protein. Make sure you click my link below and get the buy one, get one free on the bone broth protein. All right, guys. Let's get back to the show. Welcome to part four, male loneliness and disengagement. Men are three times more likely to overdose, four times more likely to kill themselves, and 14 times more likely to be incarcerated than young women. In 1960, just 4% of prime age men weren't working. Today, that number has tripled. And when you add in men who are unemployed but still looking, it's a staggering 16% of men that are out of work. Nearly 20% of men aged 25 to 34 still live at home with their parents, and nearly one in four young men reported having zero sex in the past year. That is triple the rate from just a decade ago. Now, that might not seem like a big deal until you realize that the pursuit of a healthy sexual relationship is the single most profound motivating factor for men. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Abraham Maslow explicitly placed sex within the physiological needs tier. In evolutionary biology, the fundamental drive states are often summarized as the four F's, fighting, fleeing, feeding, and mating. Freud categorized sex as one of the core life instincts, alongside hunger, thirst, and self-preservation. And biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, famous for her MRI studies on romantic love, found that romantic love activates brain regions tied to reward and addiction, much like hunger or drug dependency. Want to know why men send rockets to the moon or build cities, raise empires, and break records? To get laid. So, by the time men have given up on sex, they have essentially given up on everything. Make no mistake. Men are in crisis. And what makes this moment so dangerous is that when men check out, they don't just disappear quietly. They collapse inward. They numb themselves with porn, OnlyFans, junk food, and endless scrolling. They become less ambitious, less healthy, less social, and slowly lose the drive that evolution hardwired into them. And when enough men retreat, society loses its builders, its protectors, and its innovators. Civilizations do not thrive when men abandon the field. Worse still, men who feel rejected and humiliated don't just go silent. History shows, again and again, angry, purposeless men are the spark that causes chaos. As the old proverb goes, a boy rejected will burn the village just to feel its warmth. That is the real risk of the male collapse, not just isolation, but destruction. Both at the individual level from self-harm and at the level of society. They're both at risk. So, men, it doesn't matter how hard society has tried to shove you down a feminized path. As I said earlier, regardless of who caused the injury, only you can turn things around. And the clock is ticking. There's only 4 months left in the year. If you're going to turn things around, you need to start now. And the antidote to nihilism that is calling to so many of you is engagement. The antidote to despair is to strive for something. The antidote to bitterness is the pursuit of an honorable goal. And the trick to getting laid, become worthy of sexual receptivity. That's not going to immediately clear up all of the insane psychological distortions that have worked their way into society through social media, dating apps, OnlyFans, porn, all of that that have turned men and women into opposing forces instead of partners that they should be and have always been throughout history. But nonetheless, it's the first step. Honestly, this section deserves its own video, but for now, I'm just going to say this. Men, start by improving your body and leverage that to improve your mind. Evolution is a hell of a thing and it wants you to be strong, disciplined, ambitious, and desirable. Eat right and get in the gym. There are few things more psychologically rewarding than being strong and in good shape. It will not only make you feel much better about yourself, but it will also increase your sexual market value. It's not going to be a popular idea, but it's nonetheless true. You neglect that at your own peril. Second, replace cheap dopamine with real achievement. Limit or altogether eliminate the porn and 100% eliminate OnlyFans. OnlyFans makes you feel like you have some kind of relationship with a woman, but you do not and that's why over time it leads to shame and a desire to withdraw. Pursuing women is an emotionally high-risk endeavor. I get it. Women fear sexual violence from men and men fear being laughed at by women. I understand and right now things are out of whack. But nonetheless, you've got to do the things that are within your control to right this ship. And without pent-up sexual energy, you are never going to face the possible ridicule of approaching a woman. So, cut back on social media, pornography, OnlyFans. Channel that energy into the aggressive acquisition of skills and the ambitious pursuit of goals, which somehow become dirty words, but being aggressive and ambitious are very good things. One of the roles that women have historically played in the life of a man is to push them to do and be more. First, historically, getting pregnant was one of the riskiest things that a woman could do, so they made men meet a very high bar before they would become sexually receptive. That was great for men. Then, because in the caveman days, women had access to very few men. They couldn't just swipe left an infinite number of times to find someone. They had to find a suitor with potential and help them get better. Again, this was great for men, but sadly, we're in a pathological situation where men and women are actually antagonistic towards each other. This is a catastrophe, and you should do everything in your power to unwind this. But even if you can't, you need to strive to get better every day for your own sake. Life really is like a video game, and you can unlock an insanely useful skill tree if you work at it. Third, get out into the world more. The more isolated you are, the more you will collapse inward. Find a tribe, even if it starts with one other man who, like you, is trying to improve. Working to earn the respect of those you respect will make you accountable to the things you say you want, and that is step one to actually achieving them. And, of course, nothing beats being in a romantic partnership with a woman. If you're gay, fantastic. The goal is simply to find someone who wants you to get better and wants to help you get there. As such, fourth, reframe women as a potential partner, not an enemy to be subdued. Some of the that I see online is wild and extremely counterproductive. If you meet a pathological female, just move on. Meet people in real life, not online, for a better chance of actually having someone see your potential. And if you lead with that openness, rather than coming in defensive every time you meet someone of the opposite sex, you are far more likely to find a connection. And finally, set a mission for yourself that's bigger than just you. Meaning and purpose are critical elements of a life well lived. The goal should be to unlock your skill tree as a man, improve your body, develop your mind, cultivate your ambition, develop your aggression, and remain civilized. Pursue things that make you feel expansive, and reject the things that make you feel constricted or shameful. You've now seen the full picture. AI is rewriting the rules of work, housing is out of reach, inflation and deficit spending are quietly stealing your future. There is potential market instability on the horizon. And all the while, men are collapsing inward into isolation, sexlessness, and disengagement. That's the gauntlet that you have to run through. But the thread that runs through all of it is that you can do something about it. You. You may not be able to save the entire system, but you can certainly save yourself and the ones you love. What you can't do, what is extremely unwise, is to sit around mad about the situation that you're in and do nothing. Make the most of your time. You still have 4 months until January. There is still time to make this year one of the most incredible years of your life. You've got 4 months to build momentum, no matter what is happening in the world. 4 months to set goals, to outmaneuver the threats that are facing men today. You may have suffered an injury for which you are not to blame. The game may truly be rigged against you, and it is by malevolent forces, but that doesn't mean that you can't still achieve something incredible. The excuses for failure are always going to be there if if want to take them. Or, alternatively, you can develop the qualities that make men awesome. Aggression, ambition, goal obsession, and a strong drive to protect and provide. Unlock those skills and drive forward relentlessly. Master AI, invest in assets, build your body, sharpen your mind, find your tribe, partner with women, become worthy of sexual access, avoid cheap dopamine cycles and fake sexual access. Strive for mastery, meaning, and purpose. Reject bitterness, reject nihilism, reject the voices that tell you to slow down, give up, create space, or be more like a woman. Women are awesome. They're incredible, but I want you to be a man. Fight back against these threats, develop yourself, and achieve no matter what the circumstances. Because in the end, this isn't about AI or inflation or even women. This is about you and whether you're going to overcome the ridiculous challenges that you face in this moment. Men bring order to chaos. That has always been our role, and the world has never needed it more than it does right now. So, the countdown is on. 4 months, a ticking clock, no more excuses, no more waiting, no more retreat. The world has gotten stupid, but that doesn't mean you can't be smart. All right? If you want to see me explore these types of ideas in real time, be sure to join me live on YouTube on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Pacific time. You can heckle me, discuss with the community, or just drink it all in as we cover economics, politics, world affairs, cultural issues, gaming, and so much more. I'll see you guys there. Until next time, my friends. Be legendary. Take care. Peace. If you like this conversation, check out this episode to learn more. Two-thirds of Americans now say the other political party is not just wrong, but a serious threat to the United States itself. Trust in the government has collapsed to just