I'd say neither is an attractive choice.

But at present AI seems to be just eliminating the junior programmer positions. That is, the apprentices. Once the more experienced engineers retire and die off who will replace them? AI? Who will have the knowledge and expertise to know what is crap software is and what isn't?

However, part of the problem of why the wealthy elite don't invest in production is because of the Petro-dollar. When the USA moved to the Petro-dollar that is when the economy started to go K-shaped. The British Empire had the same problem. The Chinese absolutely do NOT want to become the World's reserve currency as they know the same fate will befall them. Perhaps the USA should have listened to Keynes with his Bancor currency after all.

However, in a post-oil world will it still be a thing? For now, there's still the Petro-dollar.

Essentially, the USA has indeed been the one keeping the straight closed. They wanted oil going to China stopped. That was the reason the Navy was there.

It's ultimately about controlling the world's oil supplies to put the squeeze on China.

Nordstream (Russia), Venezuela, Iran.

It's structural. A big problem is the Banks. They would rather lend for asset accumulation (rent seeking) than for production. In Canada, mortgage lending is literally zero risk as the banks are covered via CHMC against any defaults. Ultimately its the tax payer who is on the hook. Hence the massive housing-based economy.

And none of the politicians ever fix the structure because many of them are property owners.

Canada is on the same footing as Mississippi regarding GDP per capita. But if you look at the economic standard of living of the poorest income earners in Canada verses their equivalent in Mississippi, the Canadian has a better standard of living.

In the USA, the size of the pie is quite big and the wealthy get a much bigger slice of that pie than most other Western countries.