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gulliver

(14,008 posts)
12. Blue collar and retirees aren't safe either
Thu Feb 26, 2026, 11:45 PM
Feb 26

The people who lose white collar jobs will compete for blue collar jobs. Retirees who depend on Social Security or any sort of pension that has pay-as-you go funding will see support evaporate if young workers can't find income.

We're just handling this AI emergence fairly pathetically so far, imo. It's not even being talked about. You can't call Yang's and Bernie's warnings anywhere close to sufficient.

I think you have to tax automation. Not just AI. Automation, including AI. As AI replaces people's work, AI needs to be taxed to fund people's time off. We should be looking at 30 hour work weeks and getting rid of the two-income trap.

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5 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

IMHO, no it won't. It's too early in the product cycle to really have that kind of impact on things. New tech takes SWBTATTReg Feb 26 #1
Infrastructure? It's all cloud "data lakes" and services now Tim S Feb 26 #5
I too, was in IT for several decades, lucky to have gotten out in time to grab my pension too, as well as be on the side SWBTATTReg Feb 27 #23
Thanks to "the cloud", many white collar jobs consist of picking the right choices from menus Tim S Feb 27 #27
I beg to disagree. Most experts in the field are agreeing on this 18 month period. Ferrets are Cool Feb 26 #7
Not really. It's more advanced than you think. Blue Full Moon Feb 27 #20
Ipad was intro'd in 2010. A decade earlier would have been 2000 TheProle Feb 27 #26
No Greg_In_SF Feb 26 #2
Tell that to the 4000 that were just terminated from Block. Ferrets are Cool Feb 26 #9
Next up, the termination of Block itself. hunter Feb 27 #18
Insightful Torchlight Feb 27 #25
I know he's kind of a kook but he's not the only one saying this LearnedHand Feb 26 #3
Your 15 minutes were up long ago. Andrew DBoon Feb 26 #4
How's Yang's third party going? SocialDemocrat61 Feb 26 #6
Not a new prediction, this has been a 30 year trainwreck in progress...So, what is his solution? haele Feb 26 #8
Sam Altman was profiled by the New Yorker 10 years ago, and besides revealing that he's a prepper, highplainsdem Feb 27 #19
AI will eliminate white collar jobs. Automation/robotics will eliminate blue collar jobs. Zorro Feb 26 #10
"Eliminate" in 18 months is too strong a word Dave says Feb 27 #15
Yeah... 2naSalit Feb 26 #11
Robotics will ride in with the AI race horse Dave says Feb 27 #16
Blue collar and retirees aren't safe either gulliver Feb 26 #12
What's automation in that context? EdmondDantes_ Feb 27 #13
It needs to be defined in law and regulation gulliver Feb 27 #17
AI actually does a terribe job, making lots of errors that the reduced human staff has to catch, leading highplainsdem Feb 27 #14
AI is only as good as the information it has and the prompts it receives Buckeyeblue Feb 27 #21
Apparently Yang is desperate to see his name in print again. Doesn't like being irrelevant. onenote Feb 27 #22
It's a longer time frame. Johnny2X2X Feb 27 #24
It happened to white collar workers in the 90s, office workers after that bucolic_frolic Feb 27 #28
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