Last Notes on Hipster Energy: Predicting the Collapse and Unveiling the Future
Hey fellow travelers of the Holistic Finance Frontier,
As the Hipster Energy Club nears its close, it’s time to reflect not just on what we’ve achieved but also on why we faced such unique challenges. Our commitment to counterhegemony—rejecting both capitalist and communist systems—made us difficult to categorize, and that lack of alignment often translated into a lack of support. But this was always part of our mission: we didn’t just want to tweak the existing system; we wanted to envision something radically different, centered around unmeasured value, subjective experiences, and collective well-being.
We’ve long anticipated the collapse of the middle class by the end of 2025. This isn’t just about job displacement from automation and AI—it’s a deeper structural issue. As Digital Labour Solutions rise and Virtual Powerhouses reshape entire industries, we’ve been tracking the inevitable breakdown of the traditional middle-class economy. Let’s dive into that, and the forces at play in the Filtered Age, where the old definitions of value and work no longer apply.
The Filtered Age: Digital Aristocrats and Virtual Powerhouses
The Filtered Age, a term I’ve used to describe our present epoch as an evolution of the Gilded Age, is marked by digital manipulation, and monopolies of technological power. This era is defined by two powerful yet distinct elite groups: Digital Aristocrats and Virtual Powerhouses. Understanding how they shape the economic landscape is key to grasping why the middle class is set to collapse and why our systems are unsustainable.
Digital Aristocrats are those individuals who have mastered the use of digital platforms and networks to wield influence and maintain privilege. They dominate not by owning industries but by controlling the flows of data, attention, and labor through these networks. They are the kings and queens of algorithmic governance, determining whose voices are heard, whose labor is valued, and whose experiences are commodified. These aristocrats are not just tech entrepreneurs—they are power brokers of the Filtered Age, leveraging the tools of digital manipulation to amplify their own reach while diminishing everyone else’s.
On the other hand, Virtual Powerhouses are the large-scale corporate entities that dominate entire sectors of the economy using AI, automation, and digital platforms. Think of them as the megacorporations whose control extends beyond labor into the very ecosystems of value creation. Unlike the Digital Aristocrats, who control influence and cultural capital, Virtual Powerhouses control economic capital at a massive scale, shaping global markets and the future of work itself. These corporate entities are behind the rise of Digital Labour Solutions, optimizing and streamlining processes in ways that further erode traditional middle-class jobs.
Both classes operate at the heart of the Filtered Age, where the perception of progress is often a façade. The world appears more connected, more efficient, and more profitable than ever before, but beneath that veneer is a system that concentrates wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands. Materialist myopia prevents most from seeing this truth. While the economy grows, the middle class shrinks, with Digital Aristocrats and Virtual Powerhouses extracting more value from workers and consumers alike.
Predicting the Collapse of the Middle Class
The middle class, once the bedrock of economic stability, is being hollowed out by these dynamics. Automation and Digital Labour Solutions are transforming the workforce, particularly in roles that traditionally provided stability for middle-income earners. These trends aren’t slowing down—they’re accelerating, and without systemic change, the result will be the erosion of economic security for millions.
By 2025, we expect to see the middle class collapse under the weight of this transformation. It’s a stark prediction, but one grounded in reality. The jobs that used to provide not just income but identity and security are disappearing. What will replace them? The answer can’t be found in conventional solutions. We need radical economic shifts—such as Universal Basic Income (UBI)—to ensure people can maintain dignity in the face of these changes.
Why We Struggled to Find Support: Unrelenting Counterhegemony
Our anticapitalist and anti-communist stance, and the broader counterhegemonic approach of Hipster Energy, made it nearly impossible to find traditional support. We didn’t just want reform; we wanted a revolution in how society views value, work, and success. The problem, of course, is that neither the capitalist nor communist systems had any incentive to support a movement that calls for the rejection of materialist myopia and the prioritization of unmeasured value.
In a world dominated by profit motives, we focused on subjective experiences, emotional fulfillment, and mental well-being as the true measures of prosperity. Our resistance to the status quo—particularly the value systems propped up by Digital Aristocrats and Virtual Powerhouses—made us incompatible with mainstream funding structures. This, too, was by design. We knew that maintaining our independence from these power structures meant operating on the fringes, and it has been a spectacularly difficult path to walk.
Looking Forward: The Middle Ground Helpful Economic System
One of the greatest promises I saw for the future was the potential integration of our ideas into the Middle Ground Helpful Economic System. This system, which envisioned a balance between material security and emotional fulfillment, was our opportunity to reframe success as something more holistic. While we won’t get to see that project through as part of Hipster Energy, I believe it remains a key path forward for future economic paradigms.
The Middle Ground Helpful Economic System would have allowed us to push the boundaries of traditional economic thought, incorporating our belief in unmeasured value and non-materialist perspectives. It could be the kind of framework that doesn’t just acknowledge the collapse of the middle class but offers real solutions to build something better from the ground up—focusing not just on jobs but on well-being, creativity, and collective prosperity.
Closing Thoughts: This Isn’t the End
The end of Hipster Energy isn’t the end of our vision. It’s a transition, one that will allow our ideas to ripple out into the broader culture and take root in new ways. The Filtered Age will continue to test our values, and the collapse of the middle class will force a reckoning with the systems we’ve critiqued. But the seeds we’ve planted here—ideas about unmeasured value, counterhegemony, and holistic economics—will continue to grow.
As we move beyond Hipster Energy, let’s remember that the work isn’t done. We’ve been unrelenting in our pursuit of a better future, one that values creativity, mental health, and subjective experiences as much as material wealth. That future is still within reach—it just needs a new framework, one that integrates the best of what we’ve envisioned with the practical realities of the world we’re creating.
Here’s to what’s next, in the archive and beyond.
With what remains of the unmeasured,
Budget Buddy
