AI May Cement a Permanent Underclass

AI-driven automation won’t just cause temporary job churn; by removing entry-level ladders and compressing demand for mid-skill work, it can harden a cohort of workers into long-term low-income status with weakened mobility. The argument links firm adoption choices, credential gatekeeping, and labor-market scarring into a single causal story about durable inequality. — If true, this reframes AI policy from efficiency and retraining programs to questions of social insurance, labor market design, and structural redistribution.