In the last century people marveled at the Wright brothers’ success. Just 66 years later, an awestruck world watched American astronauts walk on the moon. Technical advances became prosaic. But we should be paying more attention to Artificial Intelligence. For this revolution we will not be casual observers. It will change our lives in fundamental ways. We are not prepared and our government is sleeping.

The lesson not learned

Coincident with the moon landings, American manufacturing began to move offshore. Good paying jobs were lost. Swayed by business leaders and economists who argued that the public would benefit from lower prices and that affected workers could be trained for other work, government officials happily approved. 

Senator Bernie Sanders did not share the optimism and warned that workers would suffer. He was right. Millions of jobs, often high-paying, moved to low-wage countries. Over a quarter of US manufacturing jobs were lost. The few workers who could find alternative employment suffered wage reductions of 2-4% and those who could change occupation experienced an income loss of 4-11%. Others simply dropped out of the labor market.

Automation exacerbated the job loss problem. The middle class was devastated and a massive amount of wealth shifted from their pockets to the investment accounts of the billionaire class. The mental health of displaced workers was also affected. Personal identity and self-worth are intertwined with work. Adrift and unable to support their families, the jobless treated their depression with drugs, which became a major cause of the opioid crisis. 

Now artificial intelligence agents will be integrated with and control automated equipment, which will revolutionize manufacturing again. Ultimately this will lead to the elimination of nearly all manufacturing jobs, not only in the US, but worldwide. What is more, AI agents will replace white collar workers. Every white-collar occupation, from accountant to zoologist will be impacted. Millions of jobs will be permanently lost and there will be few alternative employment opportunities.

Offshoring should have taught us a lesson. In hindsight, a clear-thinking government could have prevented devastation. In 1970 Congress could have, for example, enacted tariffs related to fair wages that would actually protect American workers. But they failed to appreciate the problem. 

We cannot afford to make that mistake now. Congress must begin to deal with the implications of a relatively jobless world and there are no easy solutions. Otherwise, we will witness a greater devastation of the middle class and a greater transfer of wealth to the billionaire class. 

AI and the common good

The present effort, using politicized tariffs, which are hidden taxes, to encourage re-shoring jobs, does not begin to solve this problem. It looks backwards and is oblivious to the certain employment crisis that lies ahead. Given that the purpose of our democratic government is to serve the common good, Congress must look forward. Serving the common good will require an innovative and enormous undertaking, on the order of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Otherwise, only the billionaires will benefit.

We will need to rethink money, the mechanism by which society shares resources. People are paid dollars for their knowledge or skills and spend dollars to buy goods and services. When AI agents provide knowledge and skills, the system will falter. The unemployed cannot buy goods and services, which weakens economic demand and threatens the stability of the entire system. Governments must act; specifically, liberal democracies must act, for democracy is the only government system aimed at serving the common good. 

Rational, fact-based, solutions are needed. Unfortunately, American democracy is in a sorry state. It is on the verge of becoming an autocracy and is no longer focused on the common good. The president is a member of the billionaire class. He claims to represent the middle class, but his grifting actions and policies are with his own. 

And evidence-based solutions are not the forte of his administration, nor is it the strength of the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a dispensationalist, who believes he is living in the End Times. In fact, by virtue of its obsession with terminating American democracy, the present Republican theocratic party is unqualified.

There are more reasons not to entrust this problem to the GOP. Republicans favor the billionaire class. Consider their promise that lower taxes would create jobs, increase wages, and grow the economy so that additional tax revenue would offset the lower tax. The promise was never fulfilled and as today the national debt stands at nearly $40 trillion ($40,000,000,000,000), which amounts to roughly $115,000 for every US individual. 

And since 1975, offshoring combined with Republican sponsored tax breaks for corporations and wealthy have shifted $79 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. If the coming unemployment crisis is not addressed, this will happen again. Republicans may think that advantageous, but the national debt problem will become intractable. Even if social security and all other federal assistance programs were terminated, the ultra-rich would still have to account for a much greater share of the tax burden for only they will have the capital.

The income and self-worth workers found in employment will have to be restored. Industry will not have the wherewithal. The responsibility will rest with the federal government to develop innovative programs focused on job creation, much like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) established during the Great Depression. 

New programs should recognize that, in modern society, money allows people to access and share essential freedoms such as education, healthcare, and travel. With creative approaches we can avoid the negative consequences of AI and attain a new and greater American society. 

And our tax code in its present form will become unworkable. It will have to be restructured. This does not mean that there will no longer be wealthy people. In the 1960’s many people were fabulously wealthy, yet the maximum income tax rate was 90%. Despite the high rate, America’s standing in the world was much greater then and the American people were happier. 

We are inspired when honest people achieve financial success, but should professional baseball and football players be paid $5 million to a max of $60 million a year while teachers are paid $60,000? Our system needs recalibration.

And it should also be appreciated that the billionaire class does not necessarily deserve their good financial fortune. Far too many ultra-rich people have been implicated in the Epstein pedophile scandal. In what moral universe would the transfer of trillions more to the billionaire class be justified?

What is certain is that the path we are on will change life in America, and not for the better. Unchecked, the AI revolution can reduce the average American income to that of Russia, $70,784 to $27,634. And Trump with his Christian nationalist administration is foolishly trying to turn America into an autocratic nation modeled on Putin’s Russia. Both outcomes are possible. 

And both can be prevented. In November, the fanatical MAGA Republicans must be voted out of office, and American patriots must elect men and women who have the integrity, intelligence, training and dedication to our Constitution that is needed to integrate AI with American society in ways that benefit the common good and not just the billionaire class.

Bob Topper, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a retired engineer.

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