Artificial intelligence has been in the news quite a bit lately. This is nothing new. It seems every day brings new developments we must be aware of. And we’ve discussed various issues the technology brings with it in detail in previous posts. It comes to affect social life in both positive and negative ways, especially as it pertains to employment. Employers and job seekers are leveraging the tools at their disposal to navigate the competing interests each possesses. AI is structurally altering capitalism and exposing the exploitation dynamic that it weaponizes against the working population. There are many elements to it, let’s jump in.
As is felt through the demands of capitalism, employment is a foundational pillar of social life. One must work to survive; to pay rent, food costs, services costs, etc. The nature of capital acquisition and profit generating, as we have discussed in previous essays, creates a system that inevitably leads to crises. The system is an inherently unstable and volatile mode of social organization. However, it is important to recognize that what exists today is what I would argue is a hybrid blend of techno-capital-socialism. A system where technological innovation has come to be integrated into the social fabric of the capitalism that fuels the economic foundations of society; a neoliberal world order where elite members of society operate with a failsafe, whereby the privatization and decentralization of public resources leaves the general population with obligations to meet the consequences of the elite’s decisions. It is tried and true for neoliberalism, which operates under the belief that the market will solve human problems and is a decentralized approach to governance. And still, it is a socialism in the sense that the elite may act unimpeded and, when found to have furthered a system that is doomed to fail, are bailed out with taxpayer dollars. Working people’s very existence is under attack, which is why we must uncover the concealed reality for change to occur.
The instability of capitalism produces stretches and bounds within which capital accumulation and exchange exist within it. The ruling class sets the rules of the game, so to speak, and aims to extract wealth from the market through profit generation. The working class is forced to participate in this very system that perpetuates its own exploitation.
We experience this each day, however seeing this process and understanding its nature is something quite different. The U.S.’s dominating conception of the individual and its fundamental rights has produced a fragmented society driven by hyper-individualization and the existence of a merit-based system. This creates a tension in the social fabric. It legitimizes human suffering by place the blame on the individual without considering the structures and modes of social engagement that prevent socioeconomic ascension. It impose needless suffering, which clearly should be avoided. British sociologist Michael Young’s satirical book The Rise of the Meritocracy explores the dangers of the direction we are moving. The means by which capitalism enforces merit-based systems falls directly in line with the exclusion of wealth and the levers of exploitation socioeconomically advantaged members pull to justify the accumulation of it. By its very nature, merit works to justify class warfare tactics to limit access to valuable resources. Revolutionary thinker Karl Marx conveys this excellently.
This is all to say that working class political power lays unrealized. The way social media and technology have fragmented our society is something that only time will tell the detriments of. Marx conceived of a socialist revolution that would liberate the working class through a violent revolution to establish a more egalitarian society. A new world of social organization in which the means of production were returned to the working class from capitalist control. Things have evolved since his time, so we do not hold the same view. But it’s important to draw from his teachings nonetheless, as they prove to be invaluable.
The reserve army of labor, as he conceptualized it, feels the effects of this strikingly cleareyed. This concept, that of the floating army of the unemployed, operates as a tool that the capitalist class utilizes to exploit the value of labor. As it describes in its name, it functions as a pool of workers that have been pushed out of the labor force and that are then leveraged on the market to reduce labor costs for capitalists. AI is furthering this division and expanding automation in a way that mirrors the developments of the industrial revolution. By exploiting the market through this utilization of machines, the wage paid out to the floating army is lower than what is offered to the workers that were eliminated, or the wage is eliminated entirely through automation of the position itself. The reserve workers are willing to enter the labor force, perhaps as “scabs” as they are called, and the capitalists are then able to generate more profit at lower overhead costs. It’s cruel, it’s inhumane, but it is how things go. And AI is being leveraged to do just that. Why have a human complete a task, paying them a wage, providing benefits, addressing their concerns, when a machine can do the exact same thing at a fraction of the cost with no objection. As of yet technological innovation is the Wild West, the only direction is pointing to an uncertain future. There are very little ethics under consideration and AI is not recognized as having sentience, so no obligatory ethical engagement has been established and thereby is not entitle to a wage.
Now, in the U.S., the federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour, and in Missouri at $15.00 per hour. The latter, although steadily rising over the last two decades, has not kept pace with the stagflation that is felt. Simply put, the price of goods and services have risen to the degree that members are still struggling to get by, only now struggling with the fact that “more means less.” Even still, the federal wage is set and has not changed since 2009. The reason for this is that it is a tactic to allow states sovereignty to raise or lower the wage based upon many factors. It’s an economic policy decision. Of course, no matter where one is, the federal government’s minimum wage is not a living wage. We are in favor of raising it, however, doing so would run the risk of creating market conditions that would de-incentivize business retention across the board, leading the private sector to outsource labor to other states and/or countries. This is one possibility, but another is that increasing the minimum wage at the federal level would force the private sector to address the ruthless tactics they use to generate profit. But, again, we risk the loss of positions available for workers domestically. Still, an increase in the wage amount would mean returning power to the workers; this is something the private sector seeks to avoid. To be absolutely clear, the risk of job loss does not outweigh the standard of living and stability a wage hike would bring, across the board. With AI reducing the labor force for sectors already implementing the technology, we see a 0.2% overall drop in employment, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers are already being pushed out of the market, so why not invest the billions of dollars being funneled into AI research and development toward paying workers what they are owed?
But we must recall something. A large portion of America votes in ways that directly contradict their best interests. None more so than with the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. The conservative agenda is to deregulate and let the market solve social issues that arise. It astonishes me how working-class members are enticed by the appeal of prejudice rather than class interests. People have a desire to be heard; whether that is through joining a labor union to combat the exploitation experienced in the workplace, or if it means joining a social movement, or simply by canvassing for their preferred political candidate the desire, or need rather, must be met. And this is part of what I am saying about the concealed nature of capitalist reality. The root cause is disguised as something entirely different, and the population is then easily manipulated. We’re so caught up with the demands of daily life that we forget that the world of work A.) has been institutionalized, B.) has resulted in the alienation of workers, and C.) is amendable.
The world of work is something that one must come to be socialized in to. Socialization is fundamentally human; in fact it is one of the longest periods of development in the animal kingdom. It takes an especially long time because through socialization capitalism’s principles become instilled in the minds of the developing. Humans do not come out of the womb understanding value, money, or labor, let alone the implicit skills socialization equips one with. As philosopher Herbert Marcuse aptly conceptualized, the reification that occurs in members of the capitalist order is profound. By reification we mean the concretization of social facts. For example, look at the way primary school is structured: 7am sharp start (if tardy consequences are implemented), segmented times for classes, lockers to keep belongings, an hour-long break for lunch then back to studying, leave at 3pm, do it again five days a week. These social facts, social constructions if you will, are then taken to be understood as real, as the natural order of things; that no other way could be conceptualized. The correlations with adult work life are clear. They are not coincidental, rather they are methods used to control the capacity for the population to think for themselves. A means to perpetuate the continued existence of the current system. Its motto: stifle creativeness and compartmentalize your thinking. The world of work is a place that reveals itself through careful examination. Socialization is where the habitus of capitalism is solidified.
Think of it in terms we have used previously. The habitus and field are where socialization occurs, within a social environment where discourse takes place. It is a reflexive dynamic I would argue is continually occurring. We saw recently this with the Covid pandemic. The space to communicate with others has permanently shifted. Take the fact that in-person meetings have predominantly shifted in favor of virtual reality. There are positives and negatives to changes in the social fabric for things such as this, however, it is that the space and manner of discourse have evolved that matters. The pandemic saw workers reclaim some of the power that employers had so brazenly leveraged against them, each possessing inherently different interests. A product that has stuck around? Remote work. Flexible work schedules. Work-life balance. And although still a developing dynamic, workers have been able to take advantage of the job market to seek employment elsewhere if desired.
But we brought up AI earlier because it warrants a conversation. The benefits it brings are rapidly changing the way work is conducted. Increasing productivity is the feedback I hear most often. Productivity standards are a direct indicator of a capitalist mode of thinking; they fuel the insatiable engine and yield a mindset that is never satisfied. This aside, AI is restructuring the social dispositions of individuals, all while altering the very social environment they operate within. This is the habitus and field we are referring to.
Technology is directly affecting entry-level and working-class positions as tasks become automated and streamlined. Clearly, a productivity mindset benefits the professional-middle class in its attempt to maintain its pressure on those below them in the socioeconomic order. However, white collar workers are feeling the effects sharply too, especially in entry-level positions, especially for recent college graduates, and especially in positions where repetition and mundanity are favored over creative or diversified problem solving. Sure, in the latter productivity may be increased by delegating tasks to AI to focus on complex problems. But lower tier positions are experiencing reductions in force as companies seek the bottom line and choose profit over people.
In some sense this makes sense, though. This makes it all the clearer that we must provide training and education for workers to succeed. Learning to work with the technology, or learning creative thinking tools to resist it, we must address the elephant in the room: the AI wave is upon us, we must adapt. If nothing else, we must find creative ways to liberate individuals from the oppression it perpetuates. We must re-tool workers for a world that is vastly different today than the tomorrow it will bring.
These types of issues are demonstrated in job seekers searching for employment and attempting to skill up to reenter the workforce. For example, job seekers using AI can create a resume in just a few minutes by inserting the correct prompts. Writing a personalized cover letter is no longer, AI can do it in seconds. Job seekers can utilize AI to search for jobs and they can mass apply/streamline the search for employment. AI is making job seekers’ lives easier in this regard.
And yet employers are pushing back, too. Software exists that can identify whether AI was utilized. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are used as a technology to filter resumes for companies, and this is done before the applicant’s information is ever screened by a human. Interviews are conducted by chatbots and simply relayed to human resources. Still, workers fight back by creating resumes to maneuver through these obstacles, ATS friendly resumes. But the problem has not been addressed, just the symptoms. AI is exploiting capacities.
What this dynamic creates is an unhealthy relationship between workers and employers. To be clear, it is already an imbalance of power, employers possessing inherently greater amounts to exact over workers. But the utilization of this new technology is being used as a symbolically violent measure to extract value from the labor force. To limit the availability of positions to individuals that possess the skills, know-how, and understanding to make the position workers are seeking more exclusive. If you only take one thing away from this, the next time HR has you in their office for a quarterly review know they serve the interests of the company. Recognize this and be sure to enter the conversation with the understanding that this is class warfare.
We return to the value that workers bring to the table and the ways AI is being utilized to exploit the weak points and reshaped the habitus and field. The integration of new ways of thinking and relating must be approached with caution. AI is changing the way we “do” work and the social environment it occurs within, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for progress. The move toward public investment in reskilling workers, worker-centered AI governance, and more democratic control of technology are a few directions I envision going. We can innovate and improve the use of AI for the liberation of the working class. Let’s build consensus and not further division.
Your socially conscious comrade,
Jake
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