# The “Permanent Underclass” is a myth > Source: > Published: 2026-07-21 23:29:41+00:00 # The “Permanent Underclass” is a myth ### Don't believe the hype. It's mostly anxiety. *🍕 I’m JA Westenberg. I write essays about technology, philosophy, productivity, and what it means to be human. If you like ideas that take their time, you’re in the right place.* *While you’re here, a few things I’ve built: Kerouac, a writing app | Post Through It, a solo microblogging tool | Distributism.ai, my MCP platform | Laterware, all the AI news you need | Studio Self, a thought leadership agency for founders x VCs.* *You can buy my book Permissionless here.* I keep seeing the same people crashing out over the same thing. I keep being told that we’re heading for an apocalypse, and that I have either three, or six, or 12 months to escape the permanent underclass, after which the social order will have been entirely rewritten, and the haves (post-AI millionaires) will eternally rule over the have-nots (the rest of us chumps) I’d expect to hear this from the AI doomers; it’s their bread and butter to spread the message of bleak determinism that says everything is over for the human species. But they’re not the core culprits. The culprits are the AI maximalists - the tech optimists and indie makers who are thoroughly AI-pilled; they're the folks who are the loudest about the “permanent underclass.” I think the reason why is simple: they’re overexposed to AI; they’re on the cutting edge, consuming the latest reports, whitepapers, blog posts, tools, etc, and everyone in their bubble is talking about AI constantly. They can’t catch their breath. They’re operating from a very human place of anxious insecurity, and it’s 10xed by their exposure. But I also think they’re wrong. The historical pattern of these exact predictions failing repeats over and over again. And it’s both incredibly hubristic and ridiculously short-sighted to think our current viral predictions won’t fail in the same way.