As artificial intelligence reshapes industries and the cost of living continues to climb, many workers feel increasingly squeezed between technological progress and stagnant wages. In this column, writer Mvume Ndimba reflects on inequality, labour frustration and why history suggests that ignoring economic pressure can have explosive consequences.
The Cannibalism Metaphor
I’m going to preface this whole column with a promise that I swear the cannibalism thing will make sense at the end.
So, as we continue to be the “Everything is fine” meme where global and personal finances are concerned, it is becoming more evident to me that rich people don’t really respect cannibalism like they used to.
Once upon a time, society acted in the best interest of the collective, fighting against the oppressive powers that stripped our dignity from us. More and more, we began trending toward an equal system for all, working toward the greater good and watching the inequality of the past slowly dissolve. Life was pretty good until the turn of the decade.
When Everything Became “Enhanced”
Suddenly everything became “enhanced” by AI. You could watch TV on your fridge for some reason and suddenly, the wealthiest of the wealthy found a way to finally rid themselves of pesky human input.
Almost as fast as you could say “Luddite,” the decision was clear. All in on AI. Data centres were built, some jobs were made redundant, and industries vanished in the blink of an eye in the name of “progress”.
Companies saw record growth years while simultaneously retrenching workers, and while wages were always a step or two behind inflation, it became overt by early 2020.
We were slowly being drowned, not by poor spending habits or bad financial planning. We were being drowned by a rising cost of living that our wages just couldn’t catch.
The Truth About the Gig Economy
They branded the “gig economy” as the trendy new way people were making money, setting their own hours and being their own boss. They claimed formal employment was becoming a thing of the past and some employers even complained that people no longer want to work because life is good.
In reality, however, gig economy is corporate jargon for “contract labourer”, labour shortage is shorthand for “inadequate pay for the required experience and education”, people want to work, but what people don’t want is to work for free.
That’s slavery, and paying a person exactly enough to make sure they can eat a small meal a day and have enough money to get to work the next day is slavery with extra steps.
A TikTok Warehouse Fire
I was inspired to write this story, after doomscrolling TikTok.
On the Tok there was a gentleman who by all appearances, looked to be at his place of work. In the video, you see rows and rows of product, floor to ceiling in heavy-duty high-rise racking.
As the man begins to speak, he pulls a lighter from his pocket and begins setting the product on fire.
The company in question (Kimberly-Clark) is a major, I mean MAJOR, producer and distributor of various hygiene products; they have diapers for the whole family, sanitary pads for the ladies, and various brands of toilet and facial tissues for the streets. Needless to say, a super flammable market offering.
In the video, the gentleman says, “All they had to do was pay us enough to live” he then begins to set fire to the contents of this massive warehouse, and he cuts the camera a few times, showing the progress as the flames grow higher and burn brighter.
“Paying us enough to live would’ve been way cheaper than replacing all of your inventory”, he says as the flames around him grow.
In total, it is reported that the act of arson would cost the business hundreds of millions to repair the building, replace the inventory, and an untold amount in lost sales through incomplete orders.
The Damage That Comes Later
Truly catastrophic for any business that wasn’t Kimberly-Clark, while the arson certainly caused damage to the company’s bottom line, there will be no need to restructure, no chaotic moment of fear from the executives, and the entire warehouse was most likely insured.
The real damage, I believe, will only be seen in the years to come.
The Industrial Revolution Parallel
You see, during the Industrial Revolution, the invention of the cotton gin was similar to what we know as “AI”. Marketed as a way to improve the lives of all, the machine took away countless jobs, leaving many skilled workers with no place to ply their trade and no way to earn money.
Historically, there is no man more dangerous than a hungry man; a man who has no options available to him has two options: either allow yourself to die with the old technology or do your best to kill the new technology.
See how that Luddite reference works.
The First Act of Revolt
What we witnessed that day on TikTok was an act of revolt. The first one to stand up and say “no” to the way things are, he wasn’t a vandal, he wasn’t holding the company hostage, he said exactly what caused him to lose it and destroy that factory.
“All you had to do was pay us enough to live”.
Not thrive, not bloom, not save, not invest, just live.
Bread and roses, for those of us who read sometimes, but all Buddy wanted was enough money for food, transport, and to be able to do something fun on his time off, that’s all.
And as AI spreads further and further into other industries, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing data centres up in smoke, the result of the Kimberly-Clark arsonist.
Why the Rich Should Remember History
And that is where my initial thought came from: high society no longer fears the unwashed masses, they no longer have concern for the lives of others, and as a result, we find ourselves on the precipice of a revolution.
There are too many billionaires for there to be this many homeless people, too many millionaires for there to be this many people living payday to payday, and sooner rather than later, we will see our own version of the Ramjaar.
The 1672 disaster year in the Netherlands, where public dissatisfaction resulted in the Dutch people literally eating pieces of their former prime minister Johan De Witt.
The true irony here is that Johan was actually not that bad a leader, certainly better than the people who lead us today, but still, enough public outrage is enough to turn any public official into a light dinner.
A Society That Cannot Afford Itself
The rich do not fear the poor, the poor do not value each other, and so we are stuck between being the richest society ever and the poorest society ever.
While history shows that the wheel of progress stops for no one, and that attempting to completely halt progress through any means is essentially futile, I wonder how many more warehouses have to burn down before someone figures out that business needs customers to thrive.
Government contracts are cool and all, but eventually you have to actually sell something in order to turn a profit, which cannot happen if everyone is too poor to afford a loaf of bread for their family to eat, and a bouquet of roses to give their wife.
Leave a Reply