Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 02/05/2026 7:28:13 AM PST by PK1991
"Amazon fired 16,000 employees last week.
At first glance, the terminations appeared standard. Online retail demand fluctuates with the seasons, and orders always decrease following the holidays. Factor in a few extra weeks of busyness due to post-Christmas returns, and late January makes sense as a time for layoffs. The gift-giving rush is over, so warehouses no longer need as many people.
That is not a defense of a multi-trillion-dollar company pulling the plug on $15-per-hour workers, but if you’re a shrewd capitalist, the justification checks out. But there’s more to the story.
It turns out the 16,000 fired Amazonians, Americans whose lives their former employer just upended, were not seasonal warehouse workers or on-the-floor laborers. They were corporate employees. The cuts increased the company’s white-collar firings to 30,000 since October, good for 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce and the largest axing in its three-decade history.
Why did Amazon fire them? It wasn’t due to seasonal demand, low performance, decreased profits, or any other natural reason. The 16,000 workers got shown the door because of artificial intelligence.
“Artificial intelligence and concerns over shifting corporate culture [are] to blame,” Reuters reported last week. “Significant improvements in AI assistants are helping enterprises execute duties from routine administrative tasks to complex coding problems with rapid speed and precision, driving widespread adoption.”
To be clear, the firings would be equally heartbreaking if they happened to blue-collar workers. These terminations are particularly significant, however, because they punished the people who were supposed to be safe from AI. America’s ruling class has spent decades telling the public they can avoid the consequences of automation and offshoring by going to college, getting degrees, and learning the trades of a desk job. Now, it’s clear that their promises were empty. Not even software engineers are safe. AI is coming for everyone, and unless you’re one of the elites, it will likely hurt your ability to provide for your family.
A few solutions exist.
First, Washington could regulate the hell out of artificial intelligence. Stunt its obviously demonic development, prohibit companies from firing workers and replacing them with computers, and ban self-driving trucks. Yes, any of those moves would go against the strict enforcement of the cherished “free market,” but public schools and fire departments do, too. The government’s job is to protect its people, not adhere to 12th-grade economics textbook ideology that shafts our country’s workers. Ben Shapiro can call us communists all he’d like. We don’t care.
Second, and this is by far our preferred option, the president could order the military to blow up the data centers. AI clearly threatens the United States more than Iran, and the few people in Washington who care about regular citizens should stop this project before it becomes too powerful to destroy. Why, exactly, does America need AI? To make rich people even richer? To expand the wealth gap even wider? To twist the knife in the heart of the Middle Class as it desperately gasps for air? AI is fantastic for Wall Street, but it’s terrible for average Americans. The latter should matter more.
As much as we enjoy the idea of mushroom clouds replacing machine learning facilities, we know our vision is unlikely to materialize. Washington’s donor class loves AI, so it is here to stay. Unless the people revolt.
As Ray Dalio wisely wrote in his recent essay, America’s economic conditions have grown so hostile to regular people that revolution feels inevitable. The top 10% of the top 1% hold double the wealth as the bottom 50% combined. It’s hard to imagine our country of 350 million people sticking together if that doesn’t change. Eventually, the population will decide it’s had enough. AI is speeding up the process.
Raising any of this to Washington’s establishment will earn you a scolding. They’d rather you focus on manufactured partisan debates than pay attention to their looting of our country. America’s rulers love the status quo because it keeps them and their handlers swimming in cash. They know an iceberg is coming – will AI spike unemployment to 10%? 20%? Maybe even higher? – but they don’t care because they’ve reserved their seats in the lifeboats.
As for the rest of us? Drown in the freezing water.
Or, the SEALs could move in on those data centers."
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Learn to wire.
to complex coding problems with rapid speed and precision,
I don’t know about that precision part.
I don’t think so. The bots will be wiring within a couple years: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/02/05/ai-apocalyptic-jobs-prophecy-about-to-become-reality/
And they want me to renew the prime at $140 a year !!
I share these thoughts and concerns. On this Carlson isn’t so crazy.
If youre on medicaid you get it at half price
But seniors, no
What? Is a discount available?
The USA banning AI would be like Japan banning guns while the Western world developed and perfected them.
It is a way to suicide.
The Chinese are our main competitor with AI. We need to do it better than them.
Yes, we need to help those harmed by AI. We can use the increased productivity of AI to help them. The increased GDP might be able to overcome the insane deficit.
Almarmist crap. Amazon has 1,5 million employees. A 1% decrease is not big deal especially for retail business following returns season.
The sheer ignorance of this statement is breathtaking. As if there wasn't anything else of value to do, he's citing the benefits of public schools? Fire departments could be divisions of insurance companies. Is he even capable of thinking?
Total BS to blame AI for the firings.
Meanwhile:
Join Team TuckerSo about half of Amazon Prime, and with no delivery or streaming at all.
Our subscribers make everything we do possible. Support our work by subscribing today.
$6 - 9/Month
The Missus and I put some money into Free Republic, and no other. Our other donations go to local missions where we can see the money going to help people.
One thing “AI” is accomplishing right now is being a nice scapegoat from trimming payroll to increase profit margins. A more accurate review would be seeing if the workload of the remaining corporate employees is increasing and more hectic or decreasing and easier. I suspect there is a lot of “quiet” promoting going on.
Learn to hunt and survive in the wilderness.
The type of employees that are being fired probably are largely process type employees. This work AI can do very well at.
Ironically, I'm now spending my time developing my own AI projects.
Agree. I’m buying farmland. When we go to the universal basic income because there is no work farmland will be the separator. Like owning a farm during the great depression.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.