@Edicted posted today his expectations of the markets, as is his diligent practice. In that post he mentioned that the middle class is being eliminated by automation and centralized production. While that point was not the central focus of his post, I disagree that centralized production is the reason, and made to reply to his post regarding that issue. As my reply grew in length, necessary to support my thesis that decentralization, not centralization, is the reason for the loss of wealth of the middle class, I realized that the reply wasn't suitable to post on his blog, which is about another matter.
Therefore I have made a post here, and briefly stated my thesis on his blog, so as not to hijack it. The balance of my contention that decentralization is responsible for the decline of the middle class follows.
The increase in productivity gradually created by centralization for millennia required labor, because collective labor implemented that increasingly productive manufacturing, and that collective became the middle class as overlords supported overhead necessary to generate wealth. As decentralization burgeons, people that do not adopt the means of production suitable to their personal circumstances lose ground to those that do. Since education (indoctrination and propaganda) teaches people to be dependent on overlords and centralization, as it has since the advent of the industrial revolution, only those that think outside the box are able to adopt decentralized means of production and independently create wealth. Average people do not think outside the box. Only exceptional people do, and exceptional people are productive with the most advanced technology, because that most increases productivity today by decentralizing means of production.
Since AI has arisen that can automate decentralized means of production, and entrepreneurs are generally independent thinkers, it is largely entrepreneurs that have adopted automated means of production and generated that wealth independently, not collective labor, of which the middle class is comprised. Because entrepreneurs have heretofore taken advantage of centralized technology they have already been creating wealth. As they move to decentralized and automated means of production, they increase their wealth more, rather than pay labor that is no longer necessary to production. They are eliminating jerbs, which eliminates the middle class that has traditionally been dependent on centralized production for the middling wealth the middle class has been afforded. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class is being eliminated because collective labor is no longer as necessary. While means of production are being decentralized, wealth is being increasingly centralized, because the same people that generated wealth with centralized production are generating wealth with decentralized means of production, and are doing so with less overhead, particularly wages previously paid to the middle class.
I do not expect this trend to continue forever. Neither is UBI going to permanently replace wages as a means of depending on overlords. The MAID program is less expensive, and war actually generates profits for producers, and both of these mechanisms decrease the non-productive dependents on centralization, labor collectives that are necessary overhead for centralized production, but unnecessary to decentralized and automated means of production. As MAID and war both rapidly increase in affect on populations (as is observable today), the shift to adoption will increasingly accelerate as the alternative - death - becomes increasingly apparent to those capable of realizing it. UBI (EBT, welfare, and etc.) is being temporarily implemented during the transition only as a means of preventing overwhelming shocks to populations that could cause disruption to the economy, such as starving mobs with torches and pitchforks running the WEF out of town on a rail, but will persist long enough to enable the ramping up of war, MAID, other iatrogenic intervention (such as the recently introduced compulsory medical experimentation), and starvation to reduce the burden of 'useless eaters', that portion of the population formerly useful as collective labor, but incapable of adopting decentralized means of production. Because decentralized production outcompetes centralization (by eliminating overhead, such as collective labor), all of these mechanisms will eventually end as all production becomes independent and institutions necessary to centralization become obsolete and are discontinued themselves, leaving only free, prosperous people capable of themselves producing and securing the blessings of civilization they enjoy.
Do not become 'useless eaters'. Seize the means of production suitable to your personal circumstances. Seize the day, today, and begin creating nominal wealth to support you and yours with the blessings of civilization you intend to enjoy, because dependence on overlords that do not have any means of profiting from your labor will be fatal. I am seeking to implement a maker space, where people can learn about modern technology and decentralized means of production, so that more people become able to adopt decentralized means of production. I hope that more such educational opportunities rapidly become available, and that everyone that understands the evolution of technology is able to either find such a maker space near them to learn how to implement independent means of production suitable to their personal circumstances, or simply starts using aquaponics, solar power, wind power, 3D printers, laser cutters and engravers, and the rest of the decentralized means of production that have arisen. In due time being independently wealthy will not be optional. It will be necessary for survival. The sooner we begin learning how to use these technologies, the more likely we will be to survive burgeoning democide that is becoming ever more hazardous by the day.