Thank you Corbin. This hits deeper than just the future of work.
It is about ownership. It is about dignity. It is about whether the systems we build serve the many or concentrate power even further in the hands of the few.
The Rust Belt was not just an economic collapse. It was a social and psychological unraveling. When productive capacity leaves a community and ownership is distant, the consequences ripple through health, family stability, civic trust, and identity. If AI accelerates that dynamic in the knowledge economy, the timeline compresses dramatically.
The real question is not simply whether AI can do our jobs. It is who participates in the value it creates. What forms of shared stake, broad ownership, or economic democracy might prevent the next wave of dislocation from hollowing out another generation?
If we do not at least explore structures that distribute both power and upside more widely, we risk repeating history at digital speed.
And thank you for pushing this conversation beyond comfort and into consequence.
As someone who grew up in the rust belt in the 90s, I have been explicitly making this comparison since I was fresh out of “coding boot camp”! It was also extremely clear how much the “perks” like beer and ping pong tables that used to characterize many tech companies were designed to prevent us from unionizing when we had the most power in the labor market. It worked, and the story since 2022 has been a slide down in working conditions that is only deepening.
I with you! I have thought for sometime that, while we do need to tax the rich, taxing the rich isn't the ultimate answer. We need to change the nature of ownership, so an individual never ends up controlling so much money. Forget morality, it doesn't make any functional sense. I've never quite seen a clear answer to that though, but this may be closest thing that's feasible.
The 'brochure' for capitalism has always implied everyone would end up with some kind of nest egg, but we all know that's never been the case. A public stake seems like the best path to something like that actually happening. Figuring out how to persuade everyone will be that hard part. Part of that will be helping people recognize the value in public goods, which will be a real switch for a lot of us.
I'll also note that you being sucked in to AI because it's cheap is the exact same reasoning of the those that sent our production over seas. Just say'n. All of us finding a little restraint is probably our biggest challenge.
The standard statistics are making our policymakers complacent in the face of this massive disruption in the labor market. Massive, as you state, and the previously safe, the college educated, will be primarily affected. It is imperative that we pass a public option for jobs. While we create a new relationship bewteen labor and capital (finally), we need to cushion the blow, and provide people with honest work for liveable wages and benefits.
Excellent. Thanks. I'm not sure about this line though: "Fighting trillionaires and centi-billionaires that control our means of production is not a fight we need to have." Power only gives in to force.
What if, instead of investing our tax dollars in a 10% stake of Intel's publicly-traded shares (an investment that is diluted by hundreds of millions of shares), President Trump had negotiated for (as any smart venture capitalist would) a special class of stock shares undiluted by the vast quantity of publicly-traded shares that would have provided American taxpayers with a typicial venture captialist's return on investment (which 10% ownership would dictate)? (Reminder: Taxpayer funds invested in private industry is, by any of definition of socialism, is totally a socialist thing to do.) What if that money could be used to improve healthcare access, to reduce the cost of education, etc.? It's just good business, right? Unlike tariffs, the funds from which could be going into a fund to outfit manufacturers' legacy equipment with digital systems that improve productivity as China has done, instead of using that money to pay the bills! President Trump has the nerve to call this "winning" but there's plenty of blame to go around. Neoloiberal economics of the past fifty years brought us to the point where enough voters were desperate enough to elect this loser. America's problem isn't immigrants nor is the solution returning to "normal," which is just some version of kinder and gentler decline that is looking more and more like a "going out of business" sale. Read https://www.newconsensus.com/read "The Mission for America."
The first person to give our path forward the name it deserves, in recognition for how we recognized that the wealthy deserve 10x the share of what they want for all mankind, will be the person who finally wins the attention and devotion and loyalty of the people tired of our entire society working for the benefit of a handful of "nobles" who's only desire for the rest of mankind is slavery.
The name that demonstrates what we as a society owe to the wealthy? Guillotine.
Who do you think sanctioned the 20 Million Illegal Alien cheap labor invasion? ANSWER: The Top 1%. WALL STREET THUGS . They own both major political parties and the establishment media. BOTH major political parties along with the #fakenews stood by and said NOTHING for 4 years as the Establishment ILLEGALLY open the borders, and used tax payer funds to ILLEGALLY transport the 20 Million Illegal Aliens all over the country. Most of them are ILLEGALLY living entirely (Housing, Food, Clothing, Cell Phones, Education, and Medical Expenses) on the Middle Class Taxpayers. Most of the Illegal Aliens that do work in the US will not make enough to live, or they will work under the table. So most of their living expenses are picked up ILLEGALLY by the taxpayers. So as usual the Middle Class is subsidizing the top 1% profit margins and Cheap labor. At the same time these Lawless corrupt top 1% scum bags have helped themselves to 2 large tax breaks (2017 & 2025) that do not expire. Yet any tax help perceived(not received) to benefit the rest of us expire. Their puppet politicians (THE UNIPARTY) on both sides of the aisle are dividing us, USING FAKENEWS and corrupt Politicians, as you stated in the article. The TOP 1% WALL STREET Sanctioned TAX PAYER FUNDED immigration invasion will provide more competition for fewer jobs as this transition you write about takes place. Which means RIGGED lower labor cost and Higher profit margins for the select few Scum BAGS on Wall Street and the Top 1%.
I am not anti-immigrant. If the CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT felt we needed more workers they should have changed the immigration laws, and did it in a more organized process vetting the career criminals free loaders off the lists. Not commit this FRAUD on the Middle-class taxpayers. They sneak the ILLEGALS IN we pay for it, they get HUGE TAX BREAKS we pay for it, they get scared BELOW MARKET LABOR immigrants afraid to say anything in fear of deportation and we pay for it.
This may sound cold, but when New Englanders were left jobless because those in the south would do the same jobs for less pay, no one cried for them. They didn't turn to drugs. They hitched up their big boy/girl pants and got new skills and grew a new economy.
Thank you Corbin. This hits deeper than just the future of work.
It is about ownership. It is about dignity. It is about whether the systems we build serve the many or concentrate power even further in the hands of the few.
The Rust Belt was not just an economic collapse. It was a social and psychological unraveling. When productive capacity leaves a community and ownership is distant, the consequences ripple through health, family stability, civic trust, and identity. If AI accelerates that dynamic in the knowledge economy, the timeline compresses dramatically.
The real question is not simply whether AI can do our jobs. It is who participates in the value it creates. What forms of shared stake, broad ownership, or economic democracy might prevent the next wave of dislocation from hollowing out another generation?
If we do not at least explore structures that distribute both power and upside more widely, we risk repeating history at digital speed.
And thank you for pushing this conversation beyond comfort and into consequence.
"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." Prime Minister Mark Carney
Excellent. I will share this far and wide!
As someone who grew up in the rust belt in the 90s, I have been explicitly making this comparison since I was fresh out of “coding boot camp”! It was also extremely clear how much the “perks” like beer and ping pong tables that used to characterize many tech companies were designed to prevent us from unionizing when we had the most power in the labor market. It worked, and the story since 2022 has been a slide down in working conditions that is only deepening.
I with you! I have thought for sometime that, while we do need to tax the rich, taxing the rich isn't the ultimate answer. We need to change the nature of ownership, so an individual never ends up controlling so much money. Forget morality, it doesn't make any functional sense. I've never quite seen a clear answer to that though, but this may be closest thing that's feasible.
The 'brochure' for capitalism has always implied everyone would end up with some kind of nest egg, but we all know that's never been the case. A public stake seems like the best path to something like that actually happening. Figuring out how to persuade everyone will be that hard part. Part of that will be helping people recognize the value in public goods, which will be a real switch for a lot of us.
I'll also note that you being sucked in to AI because it's cheap is the exact same reasoning of the those that sent our production over seas. Just say'n. All of us finding a little restraint is probably our biggest challenge.
The standard statistics are making our policymakers complacent in the face of this massive disruption in the labor market. Massive, as you state, and the previously safe, the college educated, will be primarily affected. It is imperative that we pass a public option for jobs. While we create a new relationship bewteen labor and capital (finally), we need to cushion the blow, and provide people with honest work for liveable wages and benefits.
Excellent. Thanks. I'm not sure about this line though: "Fighting trillionaires and centi-billionaires that control our means of production is not a fight we need to have." Power only gives in to force.
James McMurtry wrote your theme song a couple of decades ago. He sings about the hollowing out of the middle class.
https://youtu.be/s0Eqt2v1uYU?si=wlJqcdaSjT0LOryb
So I shouldn't be excited to seize the means of production?
Nope. We’ve got to rebuild them first!
Great insight. Now let’s figure out how to do it.
I totally agree. What you're describing sounds like "Community Wealth Building". The Democracy Collaborative has lots of info on it. https://www.democracycollaborative.org/community-wealth-building
Once again, spot on. Sharing.
What if, instead of investing our tax dollars in a 10% stake of Intel's publicly-traded shares (an investment that is diluted by hundreds of millions of shares), President Trump had negotiated for (as any smart venture capitalist would) a special class of stock shares undiluted by the vast quantity of publicly-traded shares that would have provided American taxpayers with a typicial venture captialist's return on investment (which 10% ownership would dictate)? (Reminder: Taxpayer funds invested in private industry is, by any of definition of socialism, is totally a socialist thing to do.) What if that money could be used to improve healthcare access, to reduce the cost of education, etc.? It's just good business, right? Unlike tariffs, the funds from which could be going into a fund to outfit manufacturers' legacy equipment with digital systems that improve productivity as China has done, instead of using that money to pay the bills! President Trump has the nerve to call this "winning" but there's plenty of blame to go around. Neoloiberal economics of the past fifty years brought us to the point where enough voters were desperate enough to elect this loser. America's problem isn't immigrants nor is the solution returning to "normal," which is just some version of kinder and gentler decline that is looking more and more like a "going out of business" sale. Read https://www.newconsensus.com/read "The Mission for America."
The first person to give our path forward the name it deserves, in recognition for how we recognized that the wealthy deserve 10x the share of what they want for all mankind, will be the person who finally wins the attention and devotion and loyalty of the people tired of our entire society working for the benefit of a handful of "nobles" who's only desire for the rest of mankind is slavery.
The name that demonstrates what we as a society owe to the wealthy? Guillotine.
Who do you think sanctioned the 20 Million Illegal Alien cheap labor invasion? ANSWER: The Top 1%. WALL STREET THUGS . They own both major political parties and the establishment media. BOTH major political parties along with the #fakenews stood by and said NOTHING for 4 years as the Establishment ILLEGALLY open the borders, and used tax payer funds to ILLEGALLY transport the 20 Million Illegal Aliens all over the country. Most of them are ILLEGALLY living entirely (Housing, Food, Clothing, Cell Phones, Education, and Medical Expenses) on the Middle Class Taxpayers. Most of the Illegal Aliens that do work in the US will not make enough to live, or they will work under the table. So most of their living expenses are picked up ILLEGALLY by the taxpayers. So as usual the Middle Class is subsidizing the top 1% profit margins and Cheap labor. At the same time these Lawless corrupt top 1% scum bags have helped themselves to 2 large tax breaks (2017 & 2025) that do not expire. Yet any tax help perceived(not received) to benefit the rest of us expire. Their puppet politicians (THE UNIPARTY) on both sides of the aisle are dividing us, USING FAKENEWS and corrupt Politicians, as you stated in the article. The TOP 1% WALL STREET Sanctioned TAX PAYER FUNDED immigration invasion will provide more competition for fewer jobs as this transition you write about takes place. Which means RIGGED lower labor cost and Higher profit margins for the select few Scum BAGS on Wall Street and the Top 1%.
I am not anti-immigrant. If the CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT felt we needed more workers they should have changed the immigration laws, and did it in a more organized process vetting the career criminals free loaders off the lists. Not commit this FRAUD on the Middle-class taxpayers. They sneak the ILLEGALS IN we pay for it, they get HUGE TAX BREAKS we pay for it, they get scared BELOW MARKET LABOR immigrants afraid to say anything in fear of deportation and we pay for it.
This may sound cold, but when New Englanders were left jobless because those in the south would do the same jobs for less pay, no one cried for them. They didn't turn to drugs. They hitched up their big boy/girl pants and got new skills and grew a new economy.