Does anyone really think they’ll share the money and power they’ve gained with workers? I’m not a Pollyanna.
Are you ready for the new conflict? Will we be divided into two groups: a few tech companies and their employees, and those left completely outside the system due to automation?
The gains do appear to be moving towards capital tho. Barr warned this week that the US's low labor share of income, at 52.8% in Q2 2026, was a record low, and that the centralization of AI in a small number of companies could worsen this trend.
But the part of "left outside the system" hasn't yet been well established, the Stanford study showed that 22-25 year olds in the most heavily AI-exposed jobs are 19% below trend, but it appears to be mostly fewer hires rather than layoffs, and at this point, there's no indication of mass job loss across the economy. The surveys from the NY Fed also reveal that firms tend to retrain more employees than they let go.
Imo the two classes thing is pretty unlikely to happen, but the AI owners get more of the upside and it'll be a matter of policy and how quickly truly autonomous systems appear.