AGI was supposed to replace me. instead, I have more work to do than

Well it's because that's what companies optimize for.

Companies will never let their employees get away with working less if they can help it. This isn't even a secret, yet so many people do not even question it.

They get away with this because it's pushing one tiny change at a time, and there is never pushback because on the other end it's individuals applying for jobs over long periods of time so nobody notices the constant pushing in the same direction. Companies are constantly optimizing in the same direction, and they all apply similar strategies to each other because they are competing. Not to mention how they hold people hostages because they also provide health insurance.

These next few years will be interesting. Will engineers finally assert themselves or will they not notice and/or not question when companies yet again expand the role and responsibilities without equal increase in pay? I won't hold my breath.

> Sure, they lost their jobs. But they weren't creators. They were rent seekers. Rent seeking on an arbitrary mechanical skill.

Labor is not rent-seeking. That is not what this term means. Vilifying skilled laborers that lost their career due to automation, while glorifying the factory owners who coopted the entirety of this economic surplus for themselves, is capitalist propaganda.

I submitted this because it so closely aligns with the sense of urgency I personally feel right now and how its sent me down an insane coding spree over the past four months