AI AND THE END OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Alarm: The Artificial Intelligence Race and the End of the Middle Class

The American middle class is vanishing before our eyes. Wages stagnate, costs soar, and our tax system rewards those who already have far too much. But an even greater danger is upon us, one that could make today’s inequality look mild by comparison. That danger is the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence.

Across every industry, billions of dollars are being poured into AI development. From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, corporate executives are racing to deploy automation at any cost. And while they celebrate “innovation” and “efficiency,” the reality is darker: the owners of AI will get richer, while millions of middle and working-class Americans lose their livelihoods.

This is not a distant threat. It is happening now.

A Machine for Transferring Wealth Upward

Artificial intelligence, as currently developed, is a machine for concentrating wealth. It automates tasks once performed by humans, boosts corporate profits, and eliminates payroll costs. The gains flow upward to shareholders and tech oligarchs while the displaced workforce is left scrambling for part-time, low-pay, “gig” work that offers no security or benefits.

The argument that “new jobs will replace the old ones” is a comforting myth. The Industrial Revolution built new industries that required human hands. The AI revolution eliminates the need for them. Once knowledge itself can be replicated and deployed by a machine, the worker, the teacher, the accountant, the driver, the lawyer, is no longer essential. Without intervention, this dynamic will collapse what remains of the middle class.

Government’s Abdication

The federal government, rather than acting as a guardian of fairness, has chosen to serve the interests of the wealthy. Recent proposals in Congress, backed by lobbyists from Big Tech, have sought to ban states from regulating AI altogether. The message is clear: prioritize corporate profits over public welfare.

This administration, like its predecessor, refuses to confront economic reality. Its tax policies remain regressive, its priorities tilted toward corporate contributors, and its blindness to middle-class suffering is complete. The public is told to “adapt,” while the very technologies threatening their jobs are subsidized by their tax dollars.

What Must Be Done

If democracy is to survive, Congress must act now. The development and deployment of AI cannot be left to those who profit from it. The people’s government must assert control, just as it once did over railroads, monopolies, and unsafe industries.

Here are specific measures that must be enacted immediately:

1. Establish a Federal AI Regulatory Authority
   A new, independent, transparent, and robust agency should oversee every central AI system, with the authority to audit, approve, or ban deployments based on their social and economic impact. No AI that destroys jobs on a mass scale should be unleashed without public consent and compensatory safeguards.
2. Require Economic Impact Assessments
   Every significant AI deployment must include a public report detailing expected job displacement, wage effects, and community impacts. Companies that profit from automation must contribute to funds for retraining, transition assistance, and social reinvestment.
3. Implement an AI Wealth Tax and Value Dividend
   The wealth created by automation should not be privately hoarded. A portion of AI-driven profits must be taxed and redistributed to the public through universal basic services, guaranteed income programs, or public ownership of AI infrastructure.
4. Protect and Empower Workers
   Workers should have the legal right to negotiate and bargain over the implementation of AI in their workplaces. An algorithm without negotiation, notice, and compensation should replace no employee. Unionization and retraining must be encouraged, not undermined.
5. Slow or Halt Deployment in High-Risk Sectors
   Where AI threatens massive job losses in transportation, logistics, customer service, and education, the government should impose moratoriums until protective frameworks are in place.
6. Ensure Transparency and Accountability
   Any AI system that makes decisions affecting human lives, employment, credit, and healthcare must be fully explainable and subject to human review. Black-box algorithms must not rule our future.
7. Coordinate Internationally
   The U.S. must not join a global race to the bottom in deregulation. We must lead an international compact that ties technological progress to human progress, not exploitation.

The Moral Imperative

We cannot allow a technology designed by the few to dictate the fate of the many. Unchecked, artificial intelligence will not liberate humanity. It will enslave it economically. It will transform citizens into data points, workers into relics, and democracy into an oligarchy.

This is not science fiction. It is unfolding in real time. And without government control, public oversight, and redistribution of AI’s gains, we are engineering a future in which freedom belongs only to those who own the code.

A Call to Courage

This is an alarm, not a lament. We can act, but only if we act now. Congress must reclaim its duty to govern in the public interest. The American people must demand that AI serve humanity, not replace it. And those of us who still believe in fairness, equality, and the moral worth of every citizen must raise our voices before the machine drowns us out.

Artificial intelligence must not become a form of artificial democracy.
The choice is ours while we still have one.

William James Spriggs