The corporate and economic elite's playbook remains unchanged from when globalization was causing economic disruption. In the early 2000s and 2010s, they sold globalization with four core promises: displaced workers would land higher-value jobs, retraining would move people up the value chain, overall employment would grow, and cheaper goods would stimulate more hiring.
The results tell a different story. Workers displaced by offshoring still earn 9-12% less years later. One-third of wage losses stem from accepting lower-paying positions. Manufacturing decline devastated local economies with lasting damage to regional wages.
The elite pocketed increased profits while accepting zero accountability for their failed promises to average workers.
The AI Work Week Deception
Now they're recycling the same script. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently told the New York Times that AI will make five-day work weeks obsolete: "Every company will support three days, four days a week." Nvidia's Jensen Huang echoed similar claims about AI enabling four-day work weeks across industries.
The language matters. Yuan says employers will "support" reduced work weeks. Translation: they'll mandate them. Here's the likely reality behind the marketing:
While company profits skyrocket with reduced labor costs, the employees fixed expenses don't adjust accordingly. Rent, mortgage payments, utilities, and groceries increase with inflation whether you work four days or five. The gap between reduced income and increased living costs creates immediate and long-lasting financial pressure on families and communities.
Pattern Recognition
This mirrors the globalization promises exactly. Corporate leaders present technological change as inevitable progress that benefits everyone. They emphasize worker liberation—more free time, less burnout—while obscuring the economic reality of reduced compensation and benefits.
The fundamental dynamic remains: technological advancement increases corporate efficiency and profits while shifting financial risk to individual workers. The rhetoric of empowerment masks a transfer of economic security from employees to shareholders.
The Core Issue
These aren't predictions about technological possibilities. They're strategic communications designed to normalize upcoming labor market changes that primarily benefit capital owners. When CEOs publicly advocate for reduced work weeks, they're preparing the ground for policies that will be presented as worker-friendly while fundamentally restructuring employment to their advantage.
The pattern is clear: promise liberation, deliver precarity.
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