A thesis I’ve pondered for years and won’t go away…

The real “threat” to capitalism isn’t socialism or communism. The thing that may break capitalism is technology.

Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. — Archimedes

Technology is leverage. Technology allows a small number of people to create immense output. The potential present in AI will allow new kinds of output that were never before possible, in some cases with no people at all. Technology has brought efficiency improvements for as long as it has existed, and we should assume that will continue.

With so much leverage the labor market fails. There is no market to exchange your abilities for. There may be no buyer for human capacity. It isn’t a question of retraining if there isn’t anything to train to.