I finally figured out what's going on.

[Binkie The Clown]

"Some day automation and artificial intelligence will allow us all to live like kings in comfort and luxury." So goes the utopian dream. And you know what? It's true. Some day EVERYONE will live in the lap of luxury, with every need and desire fulfilled instantly. Here's how we get to that utopia:

Throughout all of history the rich have needed the poor. They needed peasants to grow their food, scrub their floors, cook their meals, haul away their trash, and do all those jobs necessary to keep civilization going. But with the rise of automation and artificial intelligence the time will come when the rich no longer need so many peasants. In time they may not need any peasants at all to keep civilization going. After all "civilization" has nothing to do with the peasants, and never has. The peasants are unwashed, uncultured, and living just outside the boundary of what the rich consider "civilization" anyway.

And just imagine how much better life will be for the rich when, finally, all the peasants are gone. They will have the roads, and parks, and museums, and yachts, and beaches all to themselves without all those smelly, troublesome peasants crowding up the place. We all know how annoying those peasants can be with their constants demands for "free stuff" and all their whining about not having jobs or health care. And there won't be any of that constant bellyaching about "the 1%", because the one percent (along with a small cadre of technological wizards and magicians) will have become the 100 percent after the old 99% goes extinct.

So how is this master plan implemented? Well, I suppose they might start by removing health care for the 99%, and then cutting way back on food by pricing them out of the market. Then new laws could be made creating new crimes that the rabble could be rounded up and locked away for. Or better yet, trouble makers, or even suspected trouble makers could just be shot on sight. It's not the whole solution, of course, but it's a good start. And you never know what kind of "perfectly natural" plague might sweep through the poor unfortunates who can't afford the $10,000 a dose vaccine against it.

So you see, it's not about the rich getting more money and power, it's about the rich getting ALL the money and ALL the power, and then simply allowing 99% to fade away. The rich not only want to live in gated communities, they want to live in a gated planet where no poor are allowed.

And so, you see, the grand utopia of everyone living in luxury is not only possible, we are well on way to achieving it. Good times!

[NightWatcher]

1. AI will achieve Singularity around 2045 and will become smarter than we ever will.

Artificial Intelligence will see all of humanity as a threat and a cancer. It will wipe us out just as they do in Terminator.

We are illogical and (computer) logic will see the need to remove us.

[padfun]

2. I see the same thing you do,

except that they will still need some Peasants to grow their food. But if 90% of the current population goes, they will be satisfied.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. In europe, the black plaque that killed half the population was followed by great prosperity.

Wages went up because workers were in short supply, and all the "useless eater" were cleared away leaving room for a population rebound of young, healthy workers.

[Orsino]

4. No, the rich need the poor to pretend to be better than.

But for a while longer, they can continue stealing from us while still enjoying the remaining infrastructure of the past generation.

[bluedigger]

5. It's inevitable.

Think about all the sci-fi dystopias we've read and watched all our lives.

One of them is bound to come to pass, right?

Soylent Green?

Logan's Run?

Entirely possible.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. There's some wealthy people who would probably want such a world, but...

... that will be the point when they're so outnumbered by the peasants that it won't be tolerated.

They currently have enough lower-level allies who are satisfied to be "more important" than the other peasants.

[Binkie The Clown]

8. They may keep a few preserves of wild peasants for "big game" hunting.

But for the most part, they will be able to do without us. If they don't have us to look down on, they will find other status games to play with each other.

What they really can't risk, and they know it, is to let the peasants remain numerous enough to revolt.

[maveric]

7. They don't need us anymore.

We're "useless eaters".

[LanternWaste]

9. pretend as we must, even the richest and most powerful cannot prevent the human condition.

Wealth inequality is historical, and technological advances have merely strengthened the inequalities rather than removing them by subtraction of the poor.

From Athens to Rome to France to England to Germany to Russia, and to America, the process has been immutable, and pretend as we must, even the richest and most powerful cannot prevent the human condition.

[hamsterjill]

10. Your point is a valid one.

The only fly in the ointment that I see is that there will always be competition amongst the rich. Who is the richer and who is the richest. Do or die. Kill or be killed.

Even if all of the peasants are killed off, in time, the lower echelon of the rich will, they themselves, become the peasants.