A Hacker News post warns that once AI can perform every cognitive and physical task at or above human level, corporations will replace most white‑collar workers. The author envisions a 2036 economy where machines handle production, services, and even strategic decisions, leaving a thin elite layer of shareholders as the only human presence.

The argument maps a three‑tier pyramid: at the base, AI‑driven factories, logistics and even medical diagnostics; in the middle, the permanent overclass that owns the few surviving corporations but no longer directs operations; at the top, the state, which enforces property rights and allocates welfare funded by AI‑generated tax streams. Because machines generate all surplus, traditional routes to wealth—hard work, property, or stock in firms like Anthropic—no longer guarantee security.

The post contends that the overclass will eventually become a liability. In any conflict requiring rapid economic mobilization, the state can expropriate their share certificates without disrupting production, as AI systems continue operating autonomously. Consequently, both billionaires and ordinary workers become politically powerless, and the notion of social mobility evaporates under an AI‑dominated order.