What Does Post-Labor Really Mean?

Exploring David Shapiro’s framework for Post-Labor Economics—the rise of automation, the decline of labor, and the shifting foundations of power and the social contract.
8 Oct 2025
Introduction: A Turning Point
What if your income, your social status, or even your purpose no longer depended on holding a job? As automation and AI continue to accelerate, this question shifts from speculative fiction into urgent reality.
To make sense of this transformation, we turn to David Shapiro’s framework for Post-Labor Economics. In his introductory essay, Shapiro argues that we must prepare for a society where human labor is no longer the foundation of economic life. He outlines three critical dynamics: the rise of automation, the decline of labor, and power & the social contract.
In this post, we’ll explore each pillar and set the stage for how Mutualism can help reshape ownership and governance in a post-labor world.
1. The Rise of Automation
Shapiro begins with a clear observation in The Rise of Automation: machines and software are increasingly capable of performing tasks once thought exclusive to humans. The guiding imperative becomes: better, faster, safer, cheaper.
- AI now writes code, generates art, analyzes medical scans, and manages logistics chains.
- Robots in warehouses and autonomous vehicles point to entire industries where machines outperform human labor in speed and consistency.
- Unlike humans, machines do not fatigue, demand wages, or make errors born of boredom.
This is not just about new tools. It is about value creation shifting away from human effort. As computation and robotics costs fall, scaling automation becomes more attractive than scaling human labor. Automation will not only supplement human work — in many domains, it will supplant it.
2. The Decline of Labor
If machines rise, labor declines. In The Decline of Labor, Shapiro explains how this shift undermines the central role labor has played for centuries — as the measure of value, the source of income, and the foundation of identity.
- As automation advances, workers’ bargaining power diminishes. Jobs that once guaranteed stability now appear fragile.
- Employment is no longer a reliable anchor for dignity or security. Underemployment and precarity grow, even as productivity rises.
- Work has historically defined who we are: What do you do? is often the first question in social encounters. As jobs disappear or erode in value, that link between labor and identity frays.
Labor is no longer the default mechanism through which individuals claim a share of economic output. For many, this represents not only a material crisis but also a cultural and psychological one.
3. Power & the Social Contract
If labor no longer anchors society, what does? In Power and the Social Contract, Shapiro argues that the central struggle becomes who owns the machines — and by extension, who captures the value they create.
- Owners of automated systems consolidate economic and political power. Without intervention, wealth risks flowing upward into fewer hands.
- The traditional social contract — if you work, you deserve a share — collapses when humans no longer provide the decisive input.
- Citizenship, rights, and dignity must be redefined when income is no longer tethered to labor.
Control over automation becomes control over society itself. The legitimacy of institutions will rest on whether the fruits of automation are shared broadly or hoarded by elites.
4. Rethinking Cooperation in a Post-Labor World
The rise of automation, the decline of labor, and the reshaping of power are not just technical developments — they are fundamental social and political shifts. They call into question the very basis of how we live together, how we distribute abundance, and how we define meaning.
This is where Mutualism offers a potential path forward. Mutualist principles of cooperation, reciprocity, and shared ownership can help reimagine the social contract for a post-labor age. Rather than allowing automation to reinforce hierarchy and inequality, we might use it as the foundation for collective abundance.
Even at this early stage, a few guiding ideas emerge:
- Collective or cooperative ownership of automation infrastructure.
- Democratic governance over AI and productive systems.
- Redistribution not as charity but as structural entitlement.
- Conceptual examples: AI-managed urban farms or co-op platforms where the community shares profits equitably.
5. Closing Questions
We’ve walked through Shapiro’s three pillars: the rise of automation, the decline of labor, and the transformation of power and social contracts. These shifts demand rethinking the basic terms of economic life.
- What would it mean for your sense of purpose if jobs no longer defined you?
- How might communities sustain dignity and belonging when labor is no longer central?
- Who should own the machines — and how should their benefits be shared?
- How might democratic governance over automated systems look in practice?
These questions will guide our exploration of Post-Labor Mutualism — a framework for building a cooperative future in the age of AI.