this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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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.
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?
One of capitalisms greatest weaknesses is it greatly rewards short terms gains at the cost of long term profits or failure. Even if you trash a company you walk away wealthy.
You're absolutely right! Can't argue with this.
What you're describing is it pursuit of short-term profits. This pursuit is often categorized as an actual mental disorder.
What this article is describing and what the people in this comment section are describing is a complete replacement of employees by AI. Which just isn't a thing that's going to take place.
I'd say the pursuit of short term gains is an inherent pattern in the human brain. If you look at it from a survival mode it makes more sense for a hunter-gather to eat everything he finds in a spot because if he doesn't it could be gone tomorrow and he'd starve even if it means he's wiping out this food plant in the long term. You see this in how many poor people handle money (spend it today because it could be gone tomorrow), people and their health (why deny myself this bacon today for the possibility of heart disease 20 years from now?), etc. It takes discipline, education and sometimes outside pressure to stop this behavior.
You were correct in deleting your comment. It was complete bullshit.
(Bellow is what the above person wrote to me. This person likes to comment then delete what the wrote which to me is in bad faith.)
You're saying that people who own corporations would replace every worker with 8 billion autonomous robots just to avoid paying wages.
Do you see how flawed that argument is? Did you read my original point, that without workers earning income, there would be no one left to buy the products or services these corporations sell? The entire global economic system is based on consumption. If people aren’t making money, how exactly are they supposed to consume anything?
You're essentially arguing that corporations would eliminate their own customer base before considering the consequences to their business model.
These companies generate billions precisely because they understand how markets function. Undermining demand on that scale would be self-destructive, not profitable.
I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this but you're stupid. You know you're stupid because you deleted your comment on bad faith so others wouldn't see it. The fact that you're self aware is even more distressful because you obviously want to say what you want to say regardless of how idiotic it sounds. Omg. You're a rare sort. I don't think I've ever come across someone like you yet!
(Bellow is what the above person wrote to me. This person likes to comment then delete what the wrote which to me is in bad faith.)
Economies are strongest when small amojnts change hands often which is exactly the opposite of what the current concentration of wealth seeks to do. These are people who work and vote against minimum wage increases, unions, and who constantly push propaganda blaming the working class for spending money to deflect from the fact that they don’t pay enough.
It’s not “absurd” to say that the richest among us are trying to drain wealth out of the working class because it’s happening in broad daylight. We can all see it, they don’t give a shit about their employees. It’s to the point were every 4-day work-week experiment has been a success both for employee happiness and productivity but we still aren’t seeing that schedule being adopted.
The rich do not care about you, and if millions of the working class die they don’t give a shit. Slave plantations weren’t actually all that efficient but it didn’t matter because it the abuse was part of it.