What happens when AI and robots take the jobs? Do we become a society of artists and athletes, or a society of consumers? There is a live case study. In the Gulf oil states (Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE), oil pays the citizens. Immigrants do the work robots will do. They are already living in the post job, post work world. So what happens when you don't have to work? Two predictions dominate The utopia prediction: once nobody has to work, people spend the surplus hours on art, sport, and craft. Keynes called the economic problem solvable. The remaining problem, he said, was how to live well. The argument is that we all become painters and weekday athletes. The purpose prediction: humans need a job for purpose and status. The feeling that someone needs what you do. Take the job away and purpose goes with it. People get depressed. So let's look at how people actually live in Kuwait. We can learn a lot from it. The Ipsos’s 2026 leisure survey found people go out and basically hang around with friends and family. They go to cafes, restaurants, malls, and parks. Drinking tea, playing cards and shopping. Their top worry is boredom. They are not depressed in the way the work argument predicts. A 2025 Araa poll in Kuwait found 89% of respondents said they were happy. 41% of the Kuwaitis in that sample said they were very happy. Joblessness it turns out doesn't produce mass despair. You also do not get a nation of artists and athletes. Kuwait's do very little recreational sports and have barely any artistic hobbies How much of this Gulf culture, and how much is more widespread human behavior when work is optional is an open question If AI delivers an abundant future, there might not be a mass renaissance or wide spread depression. The future might be less exciting. We might all just be comfortably hanging out with friends and family, drinking tea and playing cards in the park.