“Optimus will eliminate poverty and provide universal high income for all.” Elon Musk

Austin, Texas – I’ve listened to Elon Musk talk about the future more times than I can count, but something hit different in the last couple of weeks.

First on November 19 in Washington DC with Jensen Huang, then again on November 30 with Nikhil Kamath, he kept circling back to the same quiet, almost casual prediction: once we have truly useful humanoid robots, material poverty simply ceases to exist. Not “gets better.” Not “shrinks.” It ends.

He told Jensen that the moment these bots cost less than a decent used car and can do any physical job faster and better than any human, and every household will likely own several. The math is brutal and beautiful: one $20–30k Optimus, working 24 hours a day for decades, will create orders of magnitude more value than it costs. It is easy to understand how goods and services will collapse toward the price of electricity and raw materials.

And then he said the line that made me tear up thinking of my friend with her garden greenhouse:

“People will still grow vegetables… but only because they enjoy it.” Elon Musk

Instantly I thought of my friend Johnna Crider in Louisiana. She already spends half her weekends elbow-deep in raised beds, in her greenhouse, harvesting peppers and tomatoes not because she has to, but because the smell of the soil and the taste of a home grown and ground spice mix in her mouth is pure joy. One day soon, that choice will be universal. No one will ever again plant a garden out of necessity.

Same with me standing at the sink after a rough day, my favorite cotton lined gloves up to my elbows, washing dishes in lemon scented bubbly water while enjoying my fav podcast. I do it to unwind, to feel something simple and physical. Elon says that will become optional too. So will me grinding beans from my favorite little Austin roaster every morning just because the smell makes the whole house feel like home.

Work itself? Optional. Money as we know it? Eventually meaningless.

He told Nikhil that Optimus may start shipping to homes in real numbers in 10-15 years. When that happens, he said softly, “poverty simply won’t be able to survive in that world.”

I believe Elon.

For the first time in human history, we’re not talking about lifting people out of poverty. We’re talking about a world so abundant that poverty can’t even take root.

And honestly? I’m going to miss the excuse to wear my deluxe gloves and grind my own Texas coffee at 6 a.m. But I’ll take the trade. Maybe we will choose to spend more time on our gardens and serving up our own coffee for our family and friends.