Act fast, or risk being relegated to the “permanent underclass.” That’s the latest worry reverberating around the techosphere.<\/p>\n
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It’s no secret that AI is creating massive amounts of wealth for some. The startup space is flush with cash, the AI labs are doling out large salaries<\/a> to retain top talent, and a series of upcoming IPOs could turn average engineers into millionaires many times over.<\/p>\n For those early to the AI gold rush, that’s joyous. For others, it’s a sign of growing class disparity.<\/p>\n Menlo Ventures partner Deedy Das<\/a> described the feeling in his viral X post<\/a>. Roughly 10,000 people who worked for companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Nvidia can now retire, he wrote. The rest making under $500,000 can work “their whole life and never get there.”<\/p>\n Das referenced the talk of a “permanent underclass” that flies around tech circles. It has long been a meme (and a warning) on X, as techies debate<\/a> how artificial intelligence will reshape the economy and whether time is running out to set oneself up financially before AI outpaces human abilities.<\/p>\n But Das’ post clearly struck a nerve. Whether a “permanent underclass” is approaching may depend on who you ask.<\/p>\n Are fears of a ‘permanent underclass’ overblown?<\/p>\n Founder Tracy Chou<\/a> compiled a list of words she felt are overused in San Francisco. Among “agency” and “taste,”<\/a> there was the phrase “permanent underclass.”<\/p>\n The backlash to Das’ post was almost immediate. Replit product lead Amadeo Pellicce created a list<\/a> of things to do to “thrive in SF as a member of the permanent underclass.” They included going to therapy, living with others, and spending time with family. Then, he included a reminder: “X is not real life.”<\/p>\n “There is no permanent underclass,” Pellicce wrote. “Labor can always create capital. All you have to do is make something people want. AI just accelerates this.”<\/p>\n The permanent underclass of SF can go cry about not having pre-IPO anthropic money on their bi-annual trip to Europe or Japan this summer<\/p>\n \u2014 cato \ud83d\ude3e (@chowtato) May 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Foundation Capital partner Jaya Gupta wrote<\/a> that we may not want everything the so-called overclass receives. “They cannot monopolize joy, taste, friendship, beauty, aliveness, or the reasons life is worth living,” she wrote.<\/p>\n In a text to Business Insider, Das acknowledged that some people had reacted with some version of “quit your whining” or “touch grass.” Das’ personal reaction: “The anxiety everyone feels is real, both in the Bay or outside of it.”<\/p>\n “This is just a side-effect of capitalism,” Das wrote. “Any new technology has ever increasingly faster adoption rates and thus increasingly faster rates of wealth building.”<\/p>\n Das’ post was specifically about San Francisco. Former Facebook product manager and “Chaos Monkeys” author Antonio Garc\u00eda Mart\u00ednez<\/a> wrote that it correctly captured the city’s “ruthless boom\/bust, winner-take-all competition.”<\/p>\n Some Bay Area-lovers pushed back. Notion marketer John Hurley fought back<\/a> with a list of beautiful things you can do in the city. “Be deeply grateful for the heavenscape you live in,” he wrote.<\/p>\n “Permanent underclass?” tech PR Ed Zitron wrote on X<\/a>. “Drive out to the Redwoods, breathe in the air.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, techies have started diagnosing the traits of future members of the underclass, such as using a notetaking app<\/a> or saying “I think.”<\/a><\/p>\n Real career concerns beneath the memes<\/p>\n While it might be easy to dismiss the warnings of a “permanent underclass,” the memes are also hitting on real fears people have for their careers.<\/p>\n AI leaders keep forecasting how radically the technology will shake up the economy.<\/p>\n It could be a white-collar bloodbath<\/a>, as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei puts it. Meanwhile, layoffs keep getting blamed on AI<\/a>. Others talk about the idea that AI will eventually be so capable that we’ll all just be collecting universal basic income. <\/a>Americans’ sentiment for AI data center development has nosedived<\/a>.<\/p>\n One user posted a clip<\/a> of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s commencement speech, where graduates booed his reference to AI.<\/p>\n “These kids are embracing the permanent underclass,” they wrote.<\/p>\n It may also be localized in San Francisco (and its famously high cost of living) \u2014\u00a0and San Francisco alone. One X user<\/a> wrote that the permanent underclass was real, but that non-tech people should ignore it.<\/p>\n “What SF people consider ‘permanent underclass’ means something very different than in the rest of the country,” they wrote. “But it means ‘relative permanent underclass,’ and it is real.”<\/p>\n In his text, Das wrote that many San Francisco residents had been supportive, and that the common reaction he’d heard from those in the city was: “Thank you for stating plainly the anxiety from conversation we’ve all been having behind closed doors but too afraid to say out loud.”<\/p>\n you are in the permanent underclass if you can’t afford the AI subscriptions<\/p>\n \u2014 shafu (@shafu0x) May 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n