(Edit: this submission seems timely and relevant - The Blue Collar Jobs of Philip Glass - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41240152 )
Previous rounds of innovation and steep changes in work/jobs, all the way back to the industrial revolution, were both a) not seamless transitions and left huge swathes of highly skilled people impoverished for the remainder of their lives, and b) for those who did transition to new jobs, there were new jobs for them to transition to. Not everyone can learn to be an AI developer. What jobs does AI create? Is everyone who isn't well versed enough in IT infrastructure going to have get a job as a janitor working the data centers for Azure cloud? Those are going to be some clean bloody floors.
I get so tired of the rhetorical "this has happened before," no it really fucking hasn't. Not on this scale, and not when having money was so utterly critical to one's ability to survive.
Yeah but talk about terrible jobs.
If I were an artist I think I'd prefer doing commodity art pieces to pay the bills vs. working in a restaurant.
And yes, it's subjective. I know some people probably like waiting tables.
> > waiting tables
> Yeah but talk about terrible jobs.
From sibling comment to yours, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41276998 :
> ...a great deal of implicit classism ('i don't want to do a job like that, therefore such jobs are worthless').