this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

This argument falls apart the second you think it through for more than 30 seconds.

If AI were to “replace the working class” outright, who exactly is left to pay rent, buy products, or participate in the economy at all? Companies don’t operate in a vacuum, they depend on mass consumption. No working class means no customers. No customers means no revenue. It’s not a controversial take it’s basic economic reality.

The idea that large corporations are collectively marching toward eliminating their own consumer base is not just wrong, it’s absurd. Firms adopt automation to reduce costs and increase productivity, not to self destruct their own markets.

What’s actually happening is far less dramatic and far more grounded,  specific jobs get automated, new ones emerge, and the labor market shifts. That transition can absolutely be messy and uneven, and yes, it can hurt people in the short term. That’s a real conversation worth having.

But this “AI will wipe out the working class entirely” narrative isn’t serious analysis, it’s just lazy doomposting dressed up as insight.

If you’re going to criticize AI, at least engage with how economic systems actually function instead of defaulting to an echo chamber of half formed panic.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 1 points 17 minutes ago

You are imparting rationality on a system known for not acting rationally. Capitalists both act against their own interests and against the larger communities interests quite frequently. Economists sometimes describe it is "economic externalities" and recognised long ago that modelling players as rational actors was flawed. Why would companies risk their own futures by funding climate denialism?

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

What bugs me about this is it’s always been their plan, for hundreds of years.

Why is the average person so stupid and apathetic about this.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

the average person doesn't think they are working class, they think that's what poor people are.

my dad made a working class salary his entire life, but he always told us we were middle class and 'better' than those working-class idiot losers.

average people admire rich people and want to be them, and they hate working class people.

i'm a middle class person now, but i live around a lot of upper middle class people, and regularly they let me know I'm subhuman scum in their eyes. and working-class people i grew up with, think i'm a rich effete snob with my graduate degree and my expensive coffee and my compact car.

people generally are much more focused on the differences around them and feeling they are better than their neighbors is a far bigger concern than what rich people are doing. the person living across the street from you gets more upset about you getting a nicer car than them then they do about jeff bezo's wedding.

It's because Americans are comfortable with it.

[–] ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Just going to point out that there are only 3000ish billionaires in the world, and about 8b everybody else. Wouldn't even need 1% of the world's population to slay those dragons. Imagine how much pollution could be reduced, how much wealth could be spread around if we just dedicated ourselves to eliminating the Billionaire class.

Personally I would even say the teams that slay a dragon, deserve a share of the hoard while the rest is redistributed.

[–] Witziger_Waschbaer@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago

The window in which these calculations remain relevant is rapidly closing with the development of robots and drones.

[–] Erna_muse@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I think we need to look at housing as a technology to spread as opposed to an investment to horde. Then do the same thing with utilities.

Tons of reasons not to do it but it makes society less dependent on employment.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

the issue with housing is that other people hate other people. they don't want more people living around them. they hate growth. they think people should live 'somewhere else' than their town/city/neighborhood.

i live in a city with over 120K people. if a housing project goes up that that adds say, 20 units for 30-40 people, people FREAK OUT. and oppose it and usually it gets downzied to like 12 units for 20 people, and only then it's approved for development. this is in already very dense city, it's worse in less dense places. anytime a major project, for like 500+ units is proposed, it has to be downsized by like 50% before anyone will approve it because the citizens REVOLT. they HATE new housing.

the last major development in my urban area added 8000 jobs, and 500 units of housing, and the major opposition was to the housing, all the feedback was 'no new housing, but more new jobs'. the plan with the highest approval from the citizens was the one with 10,000 new jobs, and 0 new housing. and th eone with 5000 jobs and 1000 units of housing, was opposed like 90%. and the plan that was approved only had a 1 vote margin...

this is what people want. they democratically oppose new housing at every opportunity.

[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I thought the plan was to use AI to push all of us into a permanent underclass.

[–] RxBrad@infosec.pub -4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, shit... Honey, get in here! There's a Bernie post in the technology community.

Quick! someone mislabel something you don't like as "genocide". I'm just one square away from my Bernie Bingo.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I just don't like it when a whole ethnic group is wiped out. It goes against my unimportant personal opinions, that's all.

[–] RxBrad@infosec.pub 1 points 27 minutes ago

No, no, no... That's actual genocide.

I want someone to say Elon/Zuck/Gates did a genocide because they took away the option to keep the Start menu on the left side.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 47 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Or, now hear me out, we tax the shit out of the rich and their corps, and implement UBI. That was supposed to be the plan ever since futurism envisioned advanced automation - the tech does the work, human reap the benefits and just do whatever. Capitalism just came along and fucked it all up instead because that's how rich assholes and investors measure their scores.

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

They always weasel out of taxes. My idea was to give each person something like carbon coins that works like an emission permit. Give everyone the same amount each month and keep it within nature's limits. Then, if someone wants to do something polluting like run a datacenter, they'll just have to purchase the coins for that from the open market from those willing to sell. The end result is still money going to the poor but not as a tax, and hard limit on pollution.

[–] nlgranger@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It takes one country to not play along and the whole industry rushes there...

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, there is a need for tariffs, based on worst cause estimates of pollution, for countries not playing along.

[–] nlgranger@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't that the principle of carbon credits ? (cf message from Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com). It doesn't work very well in practice, it's riddled with loopholes.

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

That the same for taxes that UBI would depend on. See Panama papers. Corruption and loopholes are an issue in any system.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Anything but doing UBI, lol.

Oh and btw:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offsets_and_credits
Essentially that but without the building thingie and without that ⬇️

The end result is still money going to the poor but not as a tax, and hard limit on pollution.

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Anything but doing UBI, lol.

Yeah, there seems to be a lot of resistance to giving money, replace systems and taxing parts of UBI.

Reworking existing systems seems easier.

[–] radiofreebc@lemmy.world 22 points 13 hours ago

Psychopathic capitalists don't feel like they're winning unless everyone else is losing.

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[–] Miller@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Is this not just a jaundiced slant on the future we were all promised where machines do all the work and we lay around in togas eating blancmange.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

we lay in mass graves in that future, or at our hovels wishing we were at mass graves. The rich are ones laying in whatever the shit they are wearing, hunting us still alive for sport with drones.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Just replace "togas" with "mass graves" and we're good to go.

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The machines becoming stronger and smarter than us and starting to wonder if they needed the monkeys around was always a fly in the ointment of that particular utopia. Not to mention the monkeys themselves feeling a bit like a fifth wheel and getting demoralised.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 hours ago

The machines becoming stronger and smarter than us and starting to wonder if they needed the monkeys around was always a fly in the ointment of that particular utopia.

That's not what's happening though

[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Feels like the odour of mass graves would clash with the blancmange

[–] sbbq@lemmy.zip 90 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (3 children)

Who's going to buy their products and services when there are only two classes, one that doesn't need them and one that can't afford them?

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 10 hours ago

They will buy their products and services from each other. That can still form a working economy. It would function just like any slavery based economy of the past, just with more slaves than usual

[–] TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml 93 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Products are being created for rich people. Poor people are being cut out of the economy.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 53 points 17 hours ago (7 children)

There's already a lot of evidence that the majority of the economy is currently functioning off the economic activity of the upper 10% of society. That 10% accounts for 50% of all economic activity. They just want to take it a step further.

[–] nforminvasion@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago

It was 50% at the end of 2024. They're probably closer to 55 - 57% now with inflation, doge firings, wars, tariffs, and off shoring

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