How worried should we be about an AI-induced suicide epidemic as white collar jobs disappear?
AI is already replacing humans in white collar jobs, and per the WSJ, CEOS are openly saying that they’re eager to cut headcounts with it. There’s already a very strong correlation between joblessness and death by suicide, and if entire swaths of available jobs across the country dwindle to depths below the number of people who want to fill them, then I don’t think it takes a genius to suggest that a lot of people will end their lives by their own hands as a result of AI. Sure, manufacturing may experience a revival due to shifting macroeconomic trends, but that sector can’t take on all of those former WCWs, and even if it could, that work can almost certainly be automated in the near future too.
For what it’s worth I still have a job and I’m not in immediate danger, but it seems like a massive problem that nobody sees coming.
Posted Aug 8, 2025, 5:06 PM UTC