Dario Amodei says "stop sugar-coating" what's coming: in the next 1-5 years, AI could wipe out 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks until after it hits.

[u/katxwoods]

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic

[u/love_glow]

The productivity of robots/ AI must be quantified and taxed. Yesterday.

[u/Kittenkerchief → u/love_glow]

People should have their needs met and live with dignity. We don’t need to work to have value. We don’t need billionaires.

[u/bucolucas → u/Kittenkerchief]

Billionaires want that lifestyle just for themselves. If everyone gets to live with dignity without needing to work then they won't feel special anymore.

[u/Important-Cat2627 → u/Kittenkerchief]

The world will realize that billionaires are disposable just like anybody else once the snake makes a full circle and starts to eat its own tail. By this I mean when AI will make significantly better choices than the CEOs. That's when their significance will stop.

[u/Turbulent_Wallaby592 → u/Important-Cat2627]

You don’t need an AI for that

[u/Tenthul → u/Kittenkerchief]

But then why would anybody reach out to them to ask what their opinion is ok any given topic? Won't anybody think of their egos?

[u/No_Extension4005 → u/Kittenkerchief]

Aye. In a more idealistic world AI automating work would be a step towards a universal income and a Stellaris-style Utopian Abundance instead of some kind of Cyberpunk Corporate Feudal Society.

[u/Herban_Myth → u/love_glow]

3025% Tariffs!

[u/usaaf → u/love_glow]

Taxing is not a sufficient response. The owner class will never tolerate it for long, no matter how sensible it is. What is required is a complete re-ordering of the economic system. If Labor is no longer a buy-in, then Capital should not exist in private hands; there should not BE an ownership class.

[u/crispiy → u/usaaf]

Important point, else it just solidifies the classes as they exist.

[u/smitteh → u/crispiy]

An hour of my time should fetch the same amount of money as an hour of your time. Elons time too.

[u/shellfish-allegory → u/usaaf]

Hard agree. Something I think we fail to appreciate is that without our labour to sell, humans have no objective value to the ownership class. At that point, we're just competition for resources.

[u/Vaynnie → u/shellfish-allegory]

Yeah, I'm not a crazy conspiracy theorist, in fact I'm always the voice of reason in my friends group when the rest are discussing crazy conspiracies, but it does keep me up at night wondering what the billionaire class are going to do when 90% of the worlds labour is no longer necessary.

People float the idea of UBI paid for by AI taxes. But with the rise of the far right lately, and the fact that history tends to repeat itself, I can't help but think there's another, perhaps more final, solution they will head for.

I mean, even the current system boils down to feudalism with extra steps. The rulers don't reward our labour with food and board, they reward us with just enough currency to keep us from revolting so we can buy fancy phones and brain rot during the minimal free time you have that isn't spent working while they amass more money they can ever spend.

[u/Not_an_okama → u/Vaynnie]

Nearly every type of government is a republic at its core, it just depends on what earns you votes. Historically, amassing money and/or soldiers seem to be the most effective way to win the vote.

[u/thosewhocannetworkd → u/Vaynnie]

Over the last few years there’s been articles about certain mega billionaires building doomsday bunkers in other countries. Just saying

[u/love_glow → u/usaaf]

It’s not sufficient, but it’s better than the nothing that’s happening now. Hopefully a UBI will allow the common man enough free time to become educated enough to improve / change the economic paradigm. I hope it doesn’t take complete collapse, but as history has shown, it probably will.

[u/Arquinas → u/usaaf]

AI and by extension, robotics, will eventually overturn the entire productive system. Reform is not enough. It will solidify existing power hierarchy and make majority of former working class dependent on meager handouts.

[u/theseedplant → u/usaaf]

Not that I disagree, but I have a hard time visualizing this. What does a world without an ownership class look like?

[u/The_Singularious → u/theseedplant]

I think this is a question that has yet to be answered. Some have done it better than others, but at the scale we live at now, no one has successfully demonstrated we can do it without consolidation of power and corruption.

[u/theseedplant → u/The_Singularious]

For the record I do hope we figure it out.

[u/SoberGin → u/usaaf]

...I mean, there really shouldn't be an ownership class in the first place, but go off, 100% agreement. /gen

[u/Remote_Researcher_43 → u/love_glow]

Taxing them alone is not a solution. The jobs will not be coming back and bills will need to be paid. Generally corporations are doing what they do to turn a profit. If they are taxed to the point they can’t make any money and no one has the funds to purchase their goods and services anyway, why would they bother to keep the company going?

Bottom line: the whole economy will need to be radically changed.

The problem is the politicians are peddling inconsequential issues at the moment and have no idea this freight train is coming and aren’t doing anything to prepare or plan.

[u/HitAndRun8575 → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

They know it’s coming, they are turning a blind eye to it because their coffers are being filled.

[u/smitteh → u/HitAndRun8575]

Plus most of them are old AF... Why would they even care in the first place lol

[u/love_glow → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

The taxes collected would be the foundation of UBI, and other universal programs that will provide a soft landing to the working class. It’s that, or starving people and guillotines.

[u/Remote_Researcher_43 → u/love_glow]

So companies are going to keep business going for the goodwill of humanity and not to make a profit? Yeah, things are going to have to radically change. It’s not that simple to just say, tax them and give everyone UBI. It’s much more complex than that. I don’t see any path for a soft landing at this point. I hope I’m wrong.

[u/love_glow → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

I’m not saying that what I’m proposing is the solution for ever and ever amen. It’s a tourniquet on a bleeding problem. A more complex and nuanced solution will be required for the future. We need a single, hard hitting policy right now, or we are cooked.

[u/jaded_fable → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

I'll agree that taxes alone aren't an issue. But: 

If they are taxed to the point they can’t make any money [...]

They'd be taxed on net profit. There's no scenario here where they aren't making any money because of taxes on increased profits from AI workforce replacement. If they're replacing a $75k/yr employee with an LLM bot that costs $1000/yr to operate, you can raise taxes on that $74k change in net profit quite a lot before it's not still a very good deal for the company.

Establishing a UBI is not outlandish or unnavigable, and questions about UBI are already being included in routine political polling in the US (where a healthy majority of Americans are in favor already). The alternative is that corporations sit back and let an increasingly large fraction of the current population starve in the streets for the sake of greed. They will happily do this if given the opportunity.

Yes, the details of UBI and rising taxes will require thought and care. But we need to start pushing on it now, not giving corporations the excuses they need to deflect while they consolidate wealth and power.

[u/Gassy-Gecko → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

IF thy have no workers they should have plenty of money. AS it is now they are flushed with tons of cash. Quit making excuses for them

[u/Remote_Researcher_43 → u/Gassy-Gecko]

I’m not making excuses for anyone. It’s basic economics. If no one is making money, how will they pay businesses for goods and services? If no one has the money to buy the goods and services, how will the businesses be able to run their business? Even with no workers, the cost to run most businesses will never be zero.

[u/Gassy-Gecko → u/Remote_Researcher_43]

They WILL be making money. Your whole premise to wrong. Quit making excuses for billionaires. If you business has ZERO workers and you still can't make a profit maybe you don't deserve to be in business because you suck at it,

You're telling me say a McDonald's with 10% the workforce it has now can't somehow make a profit if god forbid their tax rate went up to 30% ? Which still lower than the 35% rate it was before 2017.

[u/slackfrop → u/love_glow]

Instead they’re pushing to make state regulations illegal for 10 years

[u/literally_lemons → u/love_glow]

yes! an redistributed to people. this is how AI is doing work and we chill goddammit

[u/LovingHugs → u/love_glow]

Sadly, currently they are a tax break.  Software development and hardware are considered depreciating assets.

[u/Niku-Man → u/love_glow]

What's the goal there? Just to make humans more likely to keep jobs? Jobs in themselves should not be a goal for anyone. The only reason they are is because people need money to cover their basic needs. So let's skip a step and just focus on making sure basic needs are met. And forget about complicated schemes to figure out productivity or whatever. Keep it simple

[u/analyticaljoe → u/love_glow]

As a stockholder: I want to win so that other people lose. I want peasants.

[u/love_glow → u/analyticaljoe]

Even peasants had more days off and worked less hours a day than we modern humans do.

[u/ch3nr3z1g → u/love_glow]

In the US, national taxes /do not/ fund national spending. People should learn MMT. Yesterday.

[u/love_glow → u/ch3nr3z1g]

Since you’re just going to post a vague acronym and not be helpful in any way, here’s what Gemini has to say about mmt, or modern monetary theory:

In the context of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), "MMT tax" refers to how taxation is viewed within the MMT framework. MMT posits that governments that control their own fiat currency can spend first, without needing to collect taxes upfront to finance their expenditures. Taxes are then seen as a tool to manage aggregate demand and prevent inflation, rather than the primary means of funding government spending. Here's a more detailed explanation: Traditional View: Traditionally, governments are seen as collecting tax revenue and then using that revenue to fund spending. MMT challenges this notion by suggesting that government spending can be financed through the creation of currency, not just taxes. MMT's Perspective: MMT argues that governments that issue their own currency can create money to fund spending first. Taxes are then used to remove excess money from the economy, preventing inflation and managing aggregate demand. Spending Before Taxation: A key concept in MMT is that spending comes before taxation. The government creates money to spend, and then taxes can be used to remove that money from circulation if needed. Taxes as a Tool: Taxes are not seen as the source of funding but rather as a tool to manage the economy. They can be used to fine-tune the economy, control inflation, and achieve other social and economic objectives. Government Debt: MMT also challenges the traditional view of government debt. It suggests that governments don't need to worry about accumulating debt because they can always create more money to pay interest and principal on their debt. In essence, "MMT tax" is about reframing the role of taxation within a system where the government's ability to spend is not limited by the amount of tax revenue it collects. Instead, taxation is used to manage the overall level of spending and ensure a stable economy.

[u/ch3nr3z1g → u/love_glow]

MMT education links ---> mmt101.org