Frozen Ladders: Why Tech Is Breaking the Promise of Upward Mobility

Automation was meant to liberate, but for millions, it's become a force of economic stagnation. This article explores how automated hiring, algorithmic management, and deskilled labor are shrinking the middle class. Interviews with warehouse workers, policy analysts, and behavioral economists highlight a dangerous paradox: rising productivity, falling security. We look at proposed interventions, from universal skills accounts to algorithmic audits, and ask: can we automate fairness before we automate away opportunity?