Yes, that's good. It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor. Projects I work on have seen prices soar. I don't consider building the things everyone hates because they promise concentration of wealth and an attack on labor at the expense of building literally anything else to be somehow a big W for labor because a few people get a slightly higher temporary paycheck. Ask the Wagyu cows how they feel about the hand they are dealt.

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metalman 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I am, exactly right this minuit, trying to explain that I am not able to quote competitivly for certain types of specialised metal work as there are specialists for that, but am facing insistent inquirys anyway.I do clean sheet custom one of a kind projects as a rule, for which, due to AI recomending my company through some imaculate process, I am exploring how much I can charge for helping the singuarity along, though all in all I am glad I have other skill sets to deploy should we run the whole thing into the ground.

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quickthrowman 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Projects I work on have seen prices soar.

Could you be more specific? Things are still competitive in the large commercial electrical market I am bidding in, if you’re bidding to make more than 10-15% you’ll get underbid by someone willing to accept a lower profit margin.

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bpodgursky 34 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

There's sort of no winning here!

AI unemploys middle-class workers: AI is stealing jobs from the middle class!

AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

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palmotea 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> There's sort of no winning here!

> AI unemploys middle-class workers: AI is stealing jobs from the middle class!

> AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

Come on, you've got to know it's not going to employ those "unionized middle-class workers" for long. Their jobs are sort of like these jobs: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/business/ai-white-collar-... ("people participat[ing] in feeding their own careers into the A.I. wood chipper...Many people who contract for these companies understand that this is a short-term opportunity...before they themselves are automated out of the job").

And yeah, there's "sort of no winning" when you're gobbling up resources to build stuff people don't like.

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SR2Z a minute ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think that ANY project employs electricians and carpenters for long, because they are there to build something that will ideally last decades or more...

I'm not even sure it's as simple as "stuff people don't like." Many of the anti-AI crowd use ChatGPT which kind of complicates the question of "do they REALLY dislike it?"

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triceratops 10 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

But that's true of most carpentry and electrical jobs. In-house carpenters and electricians are a minority.

	▲	palmotea 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I was responding to the implied symmetry in the GP: the "employs" does not balance out the "unemploys", because the unemployment is likely permanent and the employment temporary.

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paul7986 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And in time AI robots will reduce the need for these blue collar workers who are presently helping replace the white collar workers.

Just learned of a new acronym today "NILF," not in the labor force with over one million supposed NILFs out there -- dropped out and gave up.

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gib444 12 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

What cheap labour? Tradespeople are not cheap (especially if you factor in the quality of the work). This just makes them even more expensive. Meaning a big impact on homes – you know, the things people and families live in, in order to survive. Pretty important