Tim Bray draws a parallel between the 2010 Kansas tax-cut experiment and the current wave of AI-driven mass layoffs in tech. Block's announcement of 40% workforce cuts, cheered by a 24% stock price jump, exemplifies what Bray sees as a dangerous bet: that replacing workers with GenAI will deliver sustained profits. Just as Kansas's radical tax cuts failed to produce promised prosperity and instead caused fiscal collapse and inequality, Bray predicts the GenAI workforce-replacement experiment will similarly disappoint — while the investor class pushes every CEO to follow suit regardless.
Sort: