The All-Collar Crisis: When White Collar Work Meets Blue-Collar Reality
Hold onto your collars. The AI-generated crisis of work is here, and the storm will concentrate on white-collar workers from the professional economy. According to Julia Hobsbawm, founder of Workathon.io, these workers are about to experience the dismal reality of blue-collar redundancy. 50% of the US workforce will be freelance by 2030, some experts warn, making this transition the biggest shift in the nature of work since the Industrial Revolution. Humans can't be completely replaced by machines, Hobsbawm says. But enough will be replaced to create mass suffering — the same conditions that generated the revolutionary movements of the 19th century.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2285: Toby Walsh on the revolutionary promise and peril of AI in 2025
Episode 2284: Soli Ozel on the possibility of a 2025 "Pax Hebraica" in the Middle East
Episode 2283: Jonathan Rauch's six key moments of 2024
Episode 2282: Adam Kirsch on the nonsense of "Settler Colonialism"
Episode 2281: Parmy Olson on why Google DeepMind will trump OpenAI in 2025
Episode 2280: Who will win the multi trillion dollar race for AI supremacy in 2025?
Episode 2279: Why 2024 will be remembered as the year before 2025
Episode 2278: Max Stier on the Essential Value of the American Federal Government
Episode 2277: From “Science” to Atrocity - The Seductive History of Eugenics
Episode 2276: Byrne Hobart on Booms, Bubbles and the End of Stagnation
Episode 2275: Jeff Jarvis on how the world has changed over the last 20 years
Episode 2274: Bethanne Patrick's Favorite Non-Fiction Books of 2024
Episode 2273: Bethanne Patrick's Best Five Favorite Novels of 2024