What still has value when intellectual/knowledge work becomes free?

1) Land

2) Natural Resources

3) Energy

4) Weapons

5) Physical/in-person Labour

That means that, unless there are big societal changes, you better have at least a few of those available to you. A huge percentage of Americans own no land nor investments in durable assets. That means at best, they are thrown into a suddenly way-oversupplied physical labour market in order to make a living.

At the geopolitical level, a country like the United States, with so much of its current wealth tied to amorphous things like IP, the petro dollar, and general stability, certainly has all 5 of the above categories covered. However, there's a lot of vulnerable perceived value in the stock market and housing market which might vanish if the world is hit with a sudden devaluation of labour. Even if the US is theoretically poised to capitalize off of AGI, a sudden collapse of the middle class and therefore the housing market and therefore the entire financial sector might ruin that.

UBI is the bare minimum I can imagine preventing total societal collapse. Countries with existent strong safety nets or fully socialist systems might have a big advantage in surviving this. I certainly feel a certain sense of comfort living in Quebec, where although many aspects of government are broken, I can at least count on a robust and cheap hydroelectric-supplied grid and reasonable social safety nets. Between AI and climate change, I feel like there are worse places to be this century.