Corporate leaders think AI will save them.
Machines in the middle, high earners at the top, and everyone else left behind.
That’s a false horse to ride.
Here’s why:
- No Middle, No Market. The middle class doesn’t just work—it buys. If people can’t afford homes, cars, or food, who’s left to keep the economy alive? Wealth at the top can’t recycle fast enough to replace broad spending.
- AI Doesn’t Buy Groceries. Machines don’t shop or raise families. An economy driven by AI efficiency without human wages is like an engine with no fuel—it runs hot, then stalls.
- The Henry Ford Lesson. Ford didn’t just build cars—he paid his workers enough to buy them. That’s why he got rich. He understood the simple truth: your employees must also be your customers. Today’s leaders are cutting that link, and it’s going to cost them.
- Short Game vs. Long Game. Cutting wages looks brilliant on paper. But cut away your customer base, and the graph bends down fast.
When AI takes the wheel from truck drivers, or the hammer from laborers, or the hours from minimum-wage workers, those people can’t all slide into “AI maintenance” jobs. They need replacement work that is both accessible and dignified.
That means:
- Infrastructure roles — building and repairing the energy grids, transport systems, and climate projects that no algorithm can pave or wire on its own.
- Care and service work — elder care, child support, health aides—jobs where human presence is the value.
- Transition wages — a modern version of Ford’s pay raise, buying time and loyalty while people move into new roles.
- Community anchors — teachers, builders, and local workers whose jobs preserve the social core AI can’t replace.
AI can multiply wealth, but it can’t distribute it. That still takes people with paychecks. If corporations don’t reinvest in the very workers they’re replacing, they’ll find themselves rich in theory and bankrupt in practice.
Because without truck drivers delivering the goods, laborers building the roads, or wage earners buying the products, there is no economy to ride at all.
Prosperity without a middle class is a castle on sand. It looks strong until the tide rolls in.
“If this matters to you, the Library holds more.”
Post Library – Intelligent People Assume Nothing
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