SQ 832: A Competition-Crushing, AI-Adopting Dream for Big Business
State Question 832, the ballot measure that would dramatically raise Oklahoma’s minimum wage, is a gift to Big Business, Big Tech, and the accelerating AI revolution. Oklahomans will vote on June 16th to decide the fate of our state's economic future. SQ 832 is bad news, and let me take a few moments to warn you about it.
We stand at the threshold of tremendous technological transformation, one that risks the “de-humanization” of common work. AI, algorithms, and robotics are increasingly being used, in all industries, to handle routine tasks. I'm watching it grow in the cleaning and restoration industry; I'm sure it's in your field as well.
If you pay any attention at all to what the Big Tech gurus are saying at global conferences and shindigs, they are eager to remove humans from the labor equation wherever possible. Other actors are seeking to use this to pursue a socialist Universal Basic Income, whereby everyone is on the government dole and thus more easily controlled, particularly as tech-driven surveillance becomes more mainstream (see State Rep. Tom Gann's long-running fight against the implementation of Flock cameras and similar technology across the state).
SQ 832 does not fight this trend; it subsidizes it. Rather than lifting employees up the ladder, it would saw it off above their reach.
