The CEO of Microsoft-AI predicts the obsolescence of white collar jobs by AI in 18 months. The revolutionary AI is likely to draw a counter-revolution by displaced white collar workers voting with Democrats to replace democracy in the U.S.A. with socialism. And that would be unfortunate.
Democracy itself has the tools that would best adapt the U.S. economy to the new facts of life. Yet would would require an intelligent, well-informed electorate led by the politicians with similar qualifications and of course that is improbable. Instead, uncreative poll-driven politicians are elected and do a poor job and the media divides itself between those saying the new dummie is doing the best job ever and those saying he or she is the devil.
A democracy can vote to increase taxes on those that own the AI operated corporate world to a level able to support hundreds of millions of citizens without a basic income. Service workers too will be evolved into idleness by robots eventually. Socialism would tend to stop innovation or bridle it to such at extent that creativity would decline while society would ossify along lines of social decay.
Democrats and Republicans tend to regard politics and the political economy of the present era continuing indefinitely into the future. Neither seem to appreciate the power of AI to throw tens of millions out of work or the consequences of that. It is no longer a science fiction scenario; the machine is on the walk to the front door.
Gemini wrote;
“In a February 2026 interview with the Financial Times, Suleyman stated that AI is rapidly reaching human-level performance and could automate most white-collar tasks within 12 to 18 months.
Key Predictions from Mustafa Suleyman:
Targeted Professions: He specifically named lawyers, accountants, project managers, and marketers as roles where routine computer-based tasks are highly vulnerable to near-term automation.
Nature of the Shift: Suleyman described the development of “professional-grade AGI” (Artificial General Intelligence) capable of handling nearly any task involving “sitting down at a computer”.
Current Evidence: He pointed to software engineering as an early example, noting that AI-assisted coding is already used for the vast majority of code production.
Contrasting Views:
Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO): Nadella has historically taken a more moderate stance, suggesting AI will redefine cognitive labor and increase efficiency rather than making workers irrelevant.
Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO): While also predicting AGI within five years, Altman has suggested it might “whoosh by” with less immediate societal impact than some expect.
Bernie Sanders: The U.S. Senator reacted to Suleyman’s prediction by calling it an “economic earthquake” and urging for safeguards to protect workers. “-end Gemini quote
Every man's home shall be his castle- moats are optional. Dungeons and dragons will overrun the nation. Knights of knee shall find the political truth in the wilderness. Democrats may evolve into being the enemy at the Gates while microsoft AI co-pilot will find a way through the cloud leading at last, to The Magic Book of Isms.
A new generation is making the mistake of believing that socialism works better than free enterprise for a modern nation state. The gross concentration of wealth is a fact that can be corrected with democracy; socialism isn’t at all necessary or useful. Instead it is an obsolete, 19th century approach to rectifying problems of industrial era Darwinian capitalism’s extremes of England. Socialism is taking over the Democrat Party basically because the party leadership hasn't good ideas.
New York and Seattle elected socialist mayors (Mamdani and Wilson) in effect attempting to roll back the tide of the end of the Cold war with the defunct Soviet Union that was a movement for free enterprise in the United States and across the Soviet Union. Soviets recognized their ineffective delivery of goods and services to the public in that great 20th century experiment at providing fairness and social equality to the masses. I believe youth don't know history well or learn from its mistakes. A friend said that youth just want to fix what feels 'broken'.
Repeating the same wrong paths may be a traditional failure, yet with Youtube existing to popularize mass education it should be more avoidable now then before. Some say socialism doesn't mean what it used to; that all socialists want today is free bus service and a few items they desire; a living wage, health care, housing. Mayor Mamdani said he wouldn't mind government running grocery stores- I believe the latter would create Soviet style groceries radically under-stocked with a few limp vegetables and a line up for ten day old bread. Politicians don't understand the micro-dynamics of operations of such businesses nor global product acquisition and economics of putting stuff on shelves (i.e. 100 kinds of energy drinks or one, 20 varieties and flavors of yogurt or two, canned ham in ten flavors or one; from Denmark or Chinese owned pig farms in the Midwest etc)..
Even Communist China following the opening President Nixon and Sect. Of State Kissinger eventually discovered that Chinese districts that were given the right to run their own affairs radically outperformed comparable socialist, centrally run economic districts. China opted to move toward increasing free enterprise because it is simply far more productive. https://www.coursera.org/learn/econtransform1
It is a mistake to fail to learn from history and reinforce policy that are proven failures like socialism. Democracy continues to be the best political system obviously, and free enterprise is far and away the most economically productive, yet Democracy only works if people have intelligence enough to use it to deliver what the masses of voters want-within the system. There are numerous challenges to the economy, environment and well being of the nation and it’s people that can be rectified with intelligent legislation rather easily. Advocating a different system simply because politicians have no competent ideas to advance through democracy is unfortunate.
Frank Zappa pointed out that elections are the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex. One might believe that today about Germany and England in light of their support for the Ukraine war- a war that could and should be settled peacefully with Russia recovering its land historically on the East bank of the Dnepro River. The nation should have secure borders and only legal residents, citizens and tourists along with workers with appropriate visas living here; then wages normal rise. Supply and demand counts in wages as well as prices. So it is rather disingenuous for socialist mayors of Seattle and New York to support illegal immigration and better wages for legal workers simultaneously because they are counter-cyclical wage factors.
Americans tend to be ignorant of political philosophy. Because the global conversation for the 20th century was about capitalism vs socialism or communism, many Americans continue to view the world in those lenses. Corporatism, plutocracy, corporatocracy and the reality of globalization and digital currencies over borders are not things the average political philosophy of Americans enter. Any sort of political change or policy that shifts financial advantage from a tiny minority of the rich to the masses through democratic means is immediately labeled socialism even though it is not. The means of production need be privately held and operated for effectiveness. Public policy about what tax levels to set and what to do with the money is a part of the right of democracy the wealthy hate.
Socialism is a loser’s political choice and an effective misdirection of public focus. Creating public, government operated clinics for the poor and letting the middle class and rich by their own health insurance was a better way than Nixon/Romney/Obama care to provide effect health for all Americans. Food stamps are great for the hungry, yet would obviously be stupid for the middle class and rich. Health care is a similar necessary for almost everyone service. In the case of health care because the skill of physicians is critical, in addition to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and technical staff, it is practical to create clinics with free health care for those that can’t afford it and are legally in the nation. It would be a terrible thing if government bureaucrats were the ones running the pharmaceutical industry I would think; they might invest billions in developing new ‘salt tricks’.
Capital increase faster than wages, and like the acceleration of space-time may increase at a scalar pace if uncorrected. Adequate taxation to stop gross social stratification and gross lass asymmetry is necessary function of a democracy that would remain one rather than follow a version of Aristotle or Toynbee's historical cycles to a bad end. The Democrat Party has been notably ineffective or unable to increase taxes on the rich, to pay off public debt or to provide practical legislation to employ those unemployed longest with tax incentives, make patents affordable for everyone (as well as copyright), realistically solve the homeless problem with innovative physical approaches rather than government spending directly to buy housing rentals with increased public debt.
The nation will face greater challenges ahead from worker displacement by AI and robots. Large stores even now could replace most workers with wheeled robots and good systems analysis. Robots work 24 hours a day seven days a week and are more reliable than human workers. That is a real challenge Democrats cannot address at all with socialism. AI will make even lawyers too costly for many citizens. I would expect that soon socialist mayors themselves may buy AI packed robots to serve as public defenders for the poor in courtrooms one the tech and software exceed that of average law school graduates. Lawyers, unlike chess grandmasters that lose to AI or VR chess engines every time, cannot exist in a separate league of their own free of competition from AI attorney engines.
I wanted to say something about the nature of socialism, communism, capitalism and various economic and social styles that bring people politically into conflict. I believe it is a matter of individual lives being customized in life with various inputs, opportunities and abilities. Some more, others less.
Communists have more common lives that are less individualized- customized than free people. Socialists may have moderation in their individuation and self-determination for customizing their lives in the way they want in comparison to involuntary communism that shares some similarities to incarceration.
Capitalists are able to customize their lives to such an extent that they may co-opt much of the public sector and existential opportunity-environmental resource and influence laws disproportionately. Their customization of their own lives includes appropriating much of the shared experience areas of society. In a free an open society as on the American frontier of times past individuals were free to customize their lives with so much concern of encroachment from the rich, yet they also had fewer technological opportunities and choices to differentiate their life vectors with.
Communists, socialists and most human beings would probably prefer to differentiate and customize their lives in accord with their own self-concepts of what the good is for themselves. It is simply that the dynamics of power in the modern age have made forced options historically, for large sectors of the public to select mass political movements that would aggregate the good for themselves, or at least they believe it would. Mass public movements generally move toward disaggregation of customization for individual self-determination I would guess, though not necessarily in every instance.
