[heavyset_go]

> Where does this urge come from?

Business owners tend to resent having to rely on and pay their workers.

Many of them believe people should line up and volunteer/be forced to work at their companies for free, the fact that they have to pay them is an insult.

They need workers, but workers are not worthy of being needed by them, or paid, so they look for any out at all.

[camillomiller]

The word you’re looking for is greed. These systems are greed enablers. The narrative used to pump them plays on greed. And so on.

Hiring a person for the job is 3000$ per month? Great let’s try to do this with 500$ and a tangle of vibecoded toothpick bridges! For a luxury service with generous margins this is a failure-prone mentality.

[heavyset_go]

They'd still try to replace workers, even if their attempted route of automation cost them more than hiring employees would, because of their resentment towards them