By Samantha Oltman
Publication Date: 2026-02-19 13:00:00
In 2026, it’s a scary time to make a living.
Gone are the days of the Quiet Walkout, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union organizing struggles that began the decade and signaled that worker power may be on the rise again in the United States. Instead, much of this dynamic is pushed out of our minds by fears: a deepening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace.
For the tech CEOs who are leading the AI race and enriching themselves in the battle for dominance, AI is not a phantasm at all, but a shimmering unicorn. When they predict that AI is just months away from being able to do everything a software developer does, or that it will one day take over the jobs of CEOs, their enthusiasm for the future is palpable. For the rest of us, it’s hard to trust their casual comments that “some jobs will be obsolete, but many jobs will be created.” A 2025 Pew survey found that “64% of…”
