A theory that the window to build wealth is closing fast. Once AI and robotics can fully replace human labor, class positions freeze: the rich deploy superintelligent machines, everyone else waits for welfare. Gone viral in Silicon Valley as shorthand for the fear that AI disruption won’t just cost people their jobs but permanently strip ordinary workers of the economic leverage that underpins democratic society. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned of “an unemployed or very-low-wage underclass” while 79 percent of U.S. voters are worried their government has no plan to protect workers from exactly this.

Sun, Jasmine (2026): Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass