Jeff Bezos: 'Many families will live on a single income as AI cuts the cost of living'

Bezos's AI promise: abundance or the end of the middle class?

Jeff Bezos has made a prediction that seems straight out of a technological optimism handbook: artificial intelligence will drastically reduce the cost of living, allowing many families to get by on a single income. However, an analysis of the current economic structure suggests that technical efficiency rarely translates into real savings for the end consumer. The recent history of digitalization and the shift from physical formats to the cloud shows the opposite trend: value capture by platforms and the establishment of perpetual subscription models.

The fallacy of technological deflation

The premise that technological pogre makes the shopping basket cheaper ignores the reality of monopolistic markets. When formats like the CD were introduced, a cost reduction was promised that never materialized; on the contrary, prices stagnated or rose, while ownership of content was diluted in favor of temporary licenses. Today's tech sector, fully committed to AI, has diverted massive investments that, far from improving household consumption, have made basic services more expensive. Digital currency and absolute control of personal data are emerging as the definitive tools for centralized power to manage the population's spending capacity, replacing the free market with a system of quotas and permits.

Labor replacement or a redefinition of power?

The economic elite is not seeking to optimize human well-being, but to consolidate a model in which capital and energy are under absolute control. The thesis that AI will enable a return to the traditional single-income household ignores the political component: power is exercised over humans, not over machines. A scenario of total automation would leave a large part of the population as a dispensable asset, which raises the question of whether the ultimate goal is not the reduction of the active population through new systemic crises, rather than an era of leisure and spirituality for the average citizen.

The question that remains is not whether AI can cut costs, but who has a real interest in citizens being self-sufficient. History suggests that when the monopoly over energy, data and money becomes concentrated, abundance is a good that is rarely shared without a traumatic rupture of the established order.

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