> It took over a century to go from Oliver Twist to the broad Post-WWII Middle Class. How long this time?

It may be optimistic to assume any path even exists this time (or at least that any path exists without violent revolution).

I won't pretend to know what will actually happen in the future, but the long road from Oliver Twist to middle class prosperity was paved in large part by labor realizing they have collective bargaining power and wielding that as a weapon to slowly forge a seat at the table. That weapon goes away in a world where a majority of people no longer have any individual labor power to collectivize.

The article is being shared to contrast with Bill's recent post "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-c...

Discussion on this site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49451313