Scene 2: Through the Looking Glass

Lucas woke up at 2:13 a.m.

No sound. No reason. Just awake. His body tense, like it had been bracing for impact in a dream he couldn’t remember.

He lay still for a while, hoping sleep might return. It didn’t. So, against his better judgment, he reached for his phone.

He opened X.

The algorithm delivered its usual midnight cocktail: half insight, half apocalypse.

A thread on the changing world order. A chart explaining the end of the long-term debt cycle. A map of idle ships at port and a graph showing the collapse of global supply chains. He saw a video—slickly produced—predicting that white-collar jobs like his would be the next to go. "AI will do your work," it claimed. "Faster. Cheaper. Better."

Lucas scrolled on, not out of curiosity but compulsion. He worked hard. He had a decent job. Above-average income. His investments had done well. And still—there wasn’t much left at the end of the month. A down payment felt as distant as early retirement. Starting a family? He couldn’t imagine how.

It felt like Red Queen economics: all the running he could do just to stay in place. The faster you run, the more the world pushes back.

Another post slid by:

“History is the output of the laws of human nature.” Come join us at our local Mises Circle Meetup next week where we discuss current events through history lessons.

He scoffed, then paused. He didn’t understand half of what he’d just read. And the half he did understand made him uneasy.

Then came the next post. White text on black. No likes. No comments.

“Action is the antidote to anxiety.”

Lucas stared at it for a long time.

He had heard of Ludwig von Mises—some economist from a hundred years ago with strong opinions about how economies should work—but he couldn’t say much beyond that.

What should he do?