And then the riots happened. And the court case. And the political idealist rants. Esro changed the structure of the economy. Man was replaced by machine at scale. Deep Blue defeating Kasparov cracked the ice. It showed mankind that human intelligence was not supreme. But man versus machine never hit so close to home and at this scale — machines never affected human survival by taking their place in the marketplace and society.

“Am I next?” became the question heard at the dinner table.

On September 3rd, 2023 the American Trucking Associations filed a class-action lawsuit against Esro on behalf of the four million unemployed trucking employees. The outcome of the suit would go beyond setting a legal precedent. It would determine the political and economic structure of an automation-driven society.

II. Riots

The government was forced into unfamiliar territory when four million Americans were put out of a job in less than a year. As tax-paying Americans, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) members expected unemployment benefits. With average trucking salaries at $40,000 the workers should receive $400/week in unemployment benefits for 26 weeks. Spread across four million displaced workers, that’s $41.6 billion added to the already stretched-thin $100 billion paid out each year in unemployment benefits. The government couldn’t afford the cost, and decided to pay out less than half the amount instead, just $200/week. That’s the equivalent of being paid $5.00 an hour, an amount challenging to raise a family on, or even support oneself.

The millions of unemployed workers had plenty of time on their hands. Protests organized all over the country criticizing the Administration for negligence, for leaving workers and their families on the street.