Capitalist Automation

In a capitalist society of widespread automation and computerization, three classes naturally emerge. At the top sit the rich and powerful: those who own the machines. Below them, those who still have non-computerized jobs, and who will naturally be mainly providing services to the wealthy. And underneath them, the jobless masses: the majority of humanity. Things look pretty grim in this future. The first consequence is predictably extreme inequality. Under our current means tested, insufficient, work-conditional methods of welfare distribution, and the total absence of a capital wealth accumulation, existing trends will only continue to drive larger and larger gaps between the rich and the poor. The effects of inequality we see today will only become more extreme. And with even less recourse to organized power. That leads to the second dramatic consequence of highly automated capitalist society: corporate totalitarianism. A capitalist monopoly on robots virtually guarantees an even more dangerous monopoly on violence. If the ruling elite are no longer reliant on the working class to flourish, workers will be regarded as useless. And if they tried to fight back for a better society that benefits the majority, the capitalist state and corporate elite can use their monopoly on technology to crush resistance in even more frightening ways.