Artificial intelligence is unlikely to produce permanent mass unemployment, Vivek Chibber argues. But without class struggle from below and state action, automation will deepen inequality and leave workers to bear its costs.
The stark bifurcation of corporate victories and weak labor data raises concerns among economists of jobless growth jeopardizing the U.S. workforce, as well as a K-shaped economy, where the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
Among Zohran Mamdani’s rhetorical innovations has been his declaration of war on mediocrity.
Since President Biden took office, the media have run a constant stream of news stories about how high various prices were and telling their audiences that this has led to mass suffering.
The moral of the story is that there is nothing about AI technology that should lead to mass unemployment and inequality. If those are outcomes, it will be the result of how we structured the rules, not the technology itself.
A POLITICO analysis shows that pandemic-era policies reversed the trend toward a widening income gap. The move away from them threatens those gains. Which way will Biden turn?
Should China should be terrified that its population is now falling, as all our leading news outlets are telling us?
Workers haven’t gained as much leverage as a superficial examination might suggest. Advances thus far, such as they are, still leave miles to travel before the American working class recovers all the economic standing it has lost since the 1970s.
Global real wage growth has stagnated compared to productivity in recent decades contributing to widening income inequality. Economic desperation is compounded by the fact that half of the world’s population lacks any form of social protection.
FedEx’s less costly contractor drivers were supposed to give it an edge. But labor shortages are hobbling services.
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