automation and ai
Does universal basic income actually work?: Work-identity defenders
The parking lot at 5 a.m. March 6, 2019. Last Chevrolet Cruze off the line at Lordstown Assembly. Workers honked horns in the parking lot like a funeral with confetti. The plant had operated fifty-three years. At peak, 10,000 across three shifts. By noon the lot was empty.... If machines do most of the work, what do the humans do?: Institutional reform
The Luddites were not wrong On March 11, 1811, textile workers in Nottinghamshire smashed the stocking frames taking their jobs. The name became a slur. What gets left out: hand-loom weavers went from decent living in 1800 to destitution by 1830. A generation was destroyed.... If machines do most of the work, what do the humans do?: The Story
The floor softened In March 2025, a Chicago law firm replaced its entire team of junior contract reviewers — fourteen people, most under thirty, all carrying law school debt — with an AI system that cut review costs by 80 percent. The managing partner said quality improved.... If everyone got a basic income, would they flourish or check out?: Work-identity defenders
The alarm clock The last Cruze rolled off the Lordstown line on March 6, 2019. Workers honked horns and set off fireworks like it was a funeral with confetti. The plant had operated fifty-three years. At peak, 10,000 across three shifts. What happened next was not unemployment.... If everyone got a basic income, would they flourish or check out?: The Story
The transmission A woman in Stockton, California, used her first $500 guaranteed income payment to fix her Honda Civic’s transmission. The car got her to a nursing assistant certification program she had been deferring for two years....