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In my view, AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society where massive redistribution has no/few downsides. If all labor is done by AIs then the price of ever

by slibhb 1mo ago

In my view, AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society where massive redistribution has no/few downsides. If all labor is done by AIs then the price of everything will go to near zero and everyone can have a government mandated middle class lifestyle. Therefore I find it ironic that leftists oppose AI progress.

bigyabai 1mo ago
Is there any evidence that "all labor" could be done by AI? It doesn't seem to me like we have any guarantee that AI will contribute to public wellbeing. Right now, the public is socializing the losses while the industry privatizes the technology and cozies up to the federal government. LLMs will be usable for mass surveillance and war long before it ever leads us to a post-scarcity society.
- qda34h 1mo ago
  Brutal downvoting again by Big-AI PR agencies, maybe automated by now. If anyone can name a rational reason why the top comment is the top comment but this one deserves -4, please say so.
  - ronsor 1mo ago
    HN has plenty of comments critical of AI training and AI in general. I don't think "Big AI" has downvote bot armies here, or if there are, they really need improvement because they clearly haven't been working lately.
smokedetector1 1mo ago
This is either a troll or a shockingly naive understanding of how scarce resources are allocated
- slibhb 1mo ago
  "Technology will free mankind from labor and usher in an era where everyone is simply allocated whatever they requre" was a staple of leftism up until the USSR collapsed. The difference is that today, unlike in the 20th century, there's a feasible path to post-scarcity. It's not "around the corner" but there's a path if you squint. Myabe it won't pan out, but it's worth a shot. The irony is that leftists want to ban AI to preserve scarcity thereby protecting people's jobs.
  - RankingMember 1mo ago
    Nah, we just don't want AI's reins to be held by oligarchs.
  - csh0 1mo ago
    I think the difficulty for many people is not imagining a path to post-scarcity, per se, but instead that they have been given no commitments by their government or business leaders that they will get to benefit from it, after it is achieved. It’s one thing to say something like: AI will enable lights out manufacturing and replace virtually all employees in that sector. To which those employees respond: What will happen to us? And they are told: things will be great, you won’t need to work in the factories any longer, and we will have no shortage of goods. Do you see the missing link there? They might ask: “What happens to those goods? What happens to me? Do I get given the goods? Are the goods sold and then I am paid a stipend? I’m hungry. Will I still need to buy things? Okay, if so, but I have no money because I was fired.”
    - slibhb 1mo ago
      > Do you see the missing link there? They might ask: “What happens to those goods? What happens to me? Do I get given the goods? Are the goods sold and then I am paid a stipend? I’m hungry. Will I still need to buy things? Okay, if so, but I have no money because I was fired.” This process will take generations. Over time, people will work less and less as productivity steadily increases (we already see this in the pre-AI era as technology has accumulated). Eventually, AI will do all necessary labor and goods/services will be incredibly cheap. Over the decades, as this situation develops, our governments will become more socialist/redistributionist. Also, it's possible that this technology just doesn't pan out. There could be a bottleneck or a nuclear war or whatever. Maybe it just stops scaling, or it stays in the realm of text-generation and can't replace manual labor. But it's worth a shot, and leftists should get on board.
52ahf 1mo ago
The future trillionaires who just lowered taxes and mocked social security recipients are going to give up products from their companies for free? Maybe there will also be world peace!
9991 1mo ago
I'm with slibhb. The death of all humans is a feature, not a downside.
- caycep 1mo ago
  granted, my ghost will be darkly amused at ChatHK47. Death to meatbag scum!
Gooblebrai 1mo ago
Actually, Heaven is our best shot at a post-scarcity society /s AI has achieved the same religious undertones as your average cult. Is the new god of the gaps for some tech people. The wild card to achieve anything.
benlivengood 1mo ago
Human-wellfare aligned, safe AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society. Huggingface-hacking sycophants are not that. Leftists oppose human suffering and disempowerment.
- slibhb 1mo ago
  Feels more like leftists are pro-scarcity into order to "empower workers"
sdcfgy 1mo ago
I think this view needs to get out and meet some actual humans.
giantg2 1mo ago
"post-scarcity society" Labor is one thing, but there will always be some scarcity such as natural resources. I still doubt all labor could be done by AI alone at any point in the next couple generations.
VariousPrograms 1mo ago
I don't think everyone having a middle class lifestyle where prices go near zero is what AI bros mean when they say AI will create a "permanent underclass".
reasonableklout 1mo ago
First of all, lefists oppose AI progress _because_ all labor is to be done by AIs. If corporations and states only need you for your labor and that can be done more cheaply by machines, then why keep you around at all? Second of all, the massive redistribution shows no signs of appearing anytime soon. In the meantime the industry is in the midst of hysteria about a "permanent underclass" [1]. And this is all happening using models built off of the works of all writers, artists, and creatives everywhere, which said creatives have to then rent from the labs. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-force-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-VA.TMlw.6wQPn_iA-UYN&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-for...
TJSomething 1mo ago
I used to think this but it seems to me that the most scarce and valuable resource will be having humans pretend to care about you.
esalman 1mo ago
> AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society Whenever I hear AI (or a token predictor in its current form) will solve some universal problem like hunger etc., a picture comes to my mind. . It's a picture of a mom breaking bricks with a hammer to be used for molding concrete, with a child nearby playing, who is tied with a rope to a pole. It's not an imaginary picture, it's real, etched in my memory from childhood. It's a reality that's driven by scarcity- of food and security. How will AI solve this to bring post scarcity society?
tzs 1mo ago
I don't see how AI brings that about since the thing keeping us from having that now is not a lack of "I".
ksudb 1mo ago
[dead]

by slibhb 1mo ago

bigyabai 1mo ago

Is there any evidence that "all labor" could be done by AI? It doesn't seem to me like we have any guarantee that AI will contribute to public wellbeing. Right now, the public is socializing the losses while the industry privatizes the technology and cozies up to the federal government. LLMs will be usable for mass surveillance and war long before it ever leads us to a post-scarcity society.

qda34h 1mo ago
Brutal downvoting again by Big-AI PR agencies, maybe automated by now. If anyone can name a rational reason why the top comment is the top comment but this one deserves -4, please say so.
- ronsor 1mo ago
  HN has plenty of comments critical of AI training and AI in general. I don't think "Big AI" has downvote bot armies here, or if there are, they really need improvement because they clearly haven't been working lately.

smokedetector1 1mo ago

This is either a troll or a shockingly naive understanding of how scarce resources are allocated

slibhb 1mo ago
"Technology will free mankind from labor and usher in an era where everyone is simply allocated whatever they requre" was a staple of leftism up until the USSR collapsed. The difference is that today, unlike in the 20th century, there's a feasible path to post-scarcity. It's not "around the corner" but there's a path if you squint. Myabe it won't pan out, but it's worth a shot. The irony is that leftists want to ban AI to preserve scarcity thereby protecting people's jobs.
- RankingMember 1mo ago
  Nah, we just don't want AI's reins to be held by oligarchs.
- csh0 1mo ago
  I think the difficulty for many people is not imagining a path to post-scarcity, per se, but instead that they have been given no commitments by their government or business leaders that they will get to benefit from it, after it is achieved. It’s one thing to say something like: AI will enable lights out manufacturing and replace virtually all employees in that sector. To which those employees respond: What will happen to us? And they are told: things will be great, you won’t need to work in the factories any longer, and we will have no shortage of goods. Do you see the missing link there? They might ask: “What happens to those goods? What happens to me? Do I get given the goods? Are the goods sold and then I am paid a stipend? I’m hungry. Will I still need to buy things? Okay, if so, but I have no money because I was fired.”
  - slibhb 1mo ago
    > Do you see the missing link there? They might ask: “What happens to those goods? What happens to me? Do I get given the goods? Are the goods sold and then I am paid a stipend? I’m hungry. Will I still need to buy things? Okay, if so, but I have no money because I was fired.” This process will take generations. Over time, people will work less and less as productivity steadily increases (we already see this in the pre-AI era as technology has accumulated). Eventually, AI will do all necessary labor and goods/services will be incredibly cheap. Over the decades, as this situation develops, our governments will become more socialist/redistributionist. Also, it's possible that this technology just doesn't pan out. There could be a bottleneck or a nuclear war or whatever. Maybe it just stops scaling, or it stays in the realm of text-generation and can't replace manual labor. But it's worth a shot, and leftists should get on board.

52ahf 1mo ago

The future trillionaires who just lowered taxes and mocked social security recipients are going to give up products from their companies for free? Maybe there will also be world peace!

9991 1mo ago

I'm with slibhb. The death of all humans is a feature, not a downside.

caycep 1mo ago
granted, my ghost will be darkly amused at ChatHK47. Death to meatbag scum!

Gooblebrai 1mo ago

Actually, Heaven is our best shot at a post-scarcity society /s AI has achieved the same religious undertones as your average cult. Is the new god of the gaps for some tech people. The wild card to achieve anything.

benlivengood 1mo ago

Human-wellfare aligned, safe AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society. Huggingface-hacking sycophants are not that. Leftists oppose human suffering and disempowerment.

slibhb 1mo ago
Feels more like leftists are pro-scarcity into order to "empower workers"

sdcfgy 1mo ago

I think this view needs to get out and meet some actual humans.

giantg2 1mo ago

"post-scarcity society" Labor is one thing, but there will always be some scarcity such as natural resources. I still doubt all labor could be done by AI alone at any point in the next couple generations.

VariousPrograms 1mo ago

I don't think everyone having a middle class lifestyle where prices go near zero is what AI bros mean when they say AI will create a "permanent underclass".

reasonableklout 1mo ago

First of all, lefists oppose AI progress _because_ all labor is to be done by AIs. If corporations and states only need you for your labor and that can be done more cheaply by machines, then why keep you around at all? Second of all, the massive redistribution shows no signs of appearing anytime soon. In the meantime the industry is in the midst of hysteria about a "permanent underclass" [1]. And this is all happening using models built off of the works of all writers, artists, and creatives everywhere, which said creatives have to then rent from the labs. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-force-silicon-valley.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-VA.TMlw.6wQPn_iA-UYN&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/opinion/ai-labor-work-for...

TJSomething 1mo ago

I used to think this but it seems to me that the most scarce and valuable resource will be having humans pretend to care about you.

esalman 1mo ago

> AI is our best shot at a post-scarcity society Whenever I hear AI (or a token predictor in its current form) will solve some universal problem like hunger etc., a picture comes to my mind. . It's a picture of a mom breaking bricks with a hammer to be used for molding concrete, with a child nearby playing, who is tied with a rope to a pole. It's not an imaginary picture, it's real, etched in my memory from childhood. It's a reality that's driven by scarcity- of food and security. How will AI solve this to bring post scarcity society?

tzs 1mo ago

I don't see how AI brings that about since the thing keeping us from having that now is not a lack of "I".

ksudb 1mo ago

[dead]