By Charles Hugh Smith
OfTwoMinds.com
July 22, 2026
What we do know is that things have internal structures with dynamics that operate whether we "like" them or not.
Correspondent Manoj S. recommended an essay from the always-insightful John Michael Greer on the dissolution of unproductive classes behind the smokescreen of AI: A Game of Musical Chairs
"You can sell Americans on anything, no matter how wretchedly unsatisfactory it is, by labeling it as progress. That's what's being done now, with AI being used as a justification for firing useless workers, deleting unnecessary departments, cutting office staff down to scales that actually make sense, and shutting down the classroom-to-cubicle pipeline that once poured new graduates into salary class jobs. We can expect that process to accelerate dramatically in the years ahead."
Greer begins by laying out a compelling taxonomy of class in America, four self-explanatory classes defined by this question: how do different groups in today's America get their income?
1. investment class: income from investments (i.e. capital)
2. salary class: income from a monthly salary with benefits
3. wage class: income from an hourly wage with no benefits
4. welfare class: income from welfare programs
Greer argues that the salary class is now the gravitational center of power in the U.S., absorbing much of the national income in unproductive faux-problem-solving for fabricated problems explicitly devised to justify generous salaries and benefits.
The nation can no longer afford this staggeringly costly unproductive work force and so "replacing cognitive work with AI" is the cover story for the mass evisceration of this class, in a parallel to the previous gutting of the factory work force by automation and offshoring.
I've been addressing the class taxonomy of the US since 2012, and I'd like to add some commentary on the dynamics Greer so succinctly describes. In America's Metastasizing Class Wars (August 27, 2020), I laid out ten classes, based not just on sources of income but on several additional criteria:
Systemic Power: political control of the state's monopoly of force / coercion; financial control of the system's taxation, incentives and optimizations; corporate control of essential technologies - platforms; corporate-state "soft power" control of cultural, social and intellectual belief structures and sources of influence: media, social media, think-tanks, foundations, the Higher Education Clerisy, etc.
The power to protect bureaucratic-institutional fortresses from budget cuts, transparency and accountability.
Agency: the power to leave employment or a locale and change one's life; freedom from debt-servitude / employment bondage.
My ten classes: yes, this is more complicated that Greer's four classes but since power has sources other than income, accuracy demands an accounting not just of income but of power and agency, which is an individual form of power with systemic consequences such as social mobility.
1. The Deep State. Unelected, unaccountable, they wield state power. Call them if you're about to be renditioned. But you need either power or relationships to have their number. Relationships are a form of power.
2. The Oligarchs. Top bidders in the auction for political and financial influence. The top.001%. Able to rig the structures of power to serve their private interests.
3. New Nobility. The super-wealthy class just below the Oligarchs. The top.01%. They have the means to serve their private interests via lobbyists and campaign contributions. $10 million in campaign contributions nets $100 million in tax breaks / subsidies.
4. Upper Caste. The technocrat/professional class that manages the Status Quo for the upper classes. This includes wealthy entrepreneurs and owners of enterprises: rich but not rich enough to rig the structures of power to serve their private interests.
5. State Nomenklatura. Well-paid government administrators with ironclad job security and power.
Together, the Upper Caste and the Nomenklatura comprise the upper-middle class. Owners of enough capital (real estate and stocks) to cheer serial credit-asset bubbles. Since I'm doing well, the system is working great.
6. The Middle Class. Wage-earners and salaried employees, owners of traditional sources of financial security: family home, 401K retirement funds, etc. Due to high debt, many qualify as debt-serfs / wage-slaves with minimal agency despite their ownership of middle-class status signifiers.
7. The Working Poor. Households with earned income but it is not sufficient to secure the basics of middle class life. Many qualify for social welfare programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Due to high debt, many qualify as debt-serfs / wage-slaves with minimal agency.
8. State Dependents. Though often labeled "poor," those with cash / black-market income often live better than the working poor, due to generous social welfare benefits.
9. Mobile Creatives. Self-employed independents, entrepreneurial sole proprietors with adaptive skills. They may collaborate with other Creatives rather than have employees, and may have part-time conventional jobs. They have mobility between sectors and ways of earning income sufficient to acquire capital / assets. They "own their livelihoods." Their credo is trust my network, not the corporation or the state.
10. Gig economy precariat. May supplement insecure employment (limited hours, no benefits, etc.) with gig work, may combine cash work with rideshare gigs, may juggle several delivery / eBay sales / rideshare gigs. The difference between precariats and Mobile Creatives is precariats are generally in survival mode (high debt, unreliable income, etc.) and are unable to acquire capital / assets. They "rent" their livelihoods rather than "own" them.
Here is a curated list of my essays on the taxonomy of class in the US:
The Three-and-a-Half Class Society (October 22, 2012)
America's Nine Classes: The New Class Hierarchy (April 29, 2014)
What the Global Status Quo Optimizes: Protecting Elites and the Clerisy Class That Serves Them (September 26, 2014)
Explicitly describing what the system optimizes would trigger social instability.
The New Class: Mobile Creatives (May 1, 2014)
The key characteristic of the Mobile Creative class is that they live by this credo: trust your network, not the corporation or the state.
When Belief in the System Fades (March 12, 2008)