Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
What we do know is that things have internal structures with dynamics that operate whether we "like" them or not.
Correspondent Manoj S. recommended an essay from the always-insightful John Michael Greer on the dissolution of unproductive classes behind the smokescreen of AI: A Game of Musical Chairs
"You can sell Americans on anything, no matter how wretchedly unsatisfactory it is, by labeling it as progress. That's what's being done now, with AI being used as a justification for firing useless workers, deleting unnecessary departments, cutting office staff down to scales that actually make sense, and shutting down the classroom-to-cubicle pipeline that once poured new graduates into salary class jobs. We can expect that process to accelerate dramatically in the years ahead."
Greer begins by laying out a compelling taxonomy of class in America, four self-explanatory classes defined by this question: how do different groups in today's America get their income?
1. investment class: income from investments (i.e. capital)
2. salary class: income from a monthly salary with benefits
3. wage class: income from an hourly wage with no benefits
4. welfare class: income from welfare programs
Greer argues that the salary class is now the gravitational center
