I got into AI specifically, because the automation and productivity yields would result in a 4hr work week for most if not all upon full fruition.

That dream-like bubble got popped when I was reminded by a savvy individual at a hackathon basically what you alluded to in your post. He was concerned that the elites would hoard the productivity of AI as they would get a controlling stake and it wouldn't benefit the common people as much. At first I was slightly incredulous and thought better of my fellow humans but then after seeing countless confirming examples in different settings, you and this hackathon guy have a worrisome point.

Capitalist forces, at least its current iteration and various other political-economic systems seem incapable or willfully defiant on providing rent and basic necessities. We have the wealth to shelter all and feed all for a fraction of human effort yet gaining access to reliable shelter and food is a continual struggle for those not in the top rungs of wealth earners. Capitalism is reaaaaally good at producing wealth, it's atrocious at spreading it around or serving the needs of the lower classes.

So many things point at increasing wealth and automation doesn't trickle down in meaningful ways to the lower classes.

Tesla's obviously going through some recent struggles, it's cutting 10-ish % of its workforce, yet the board repeatedly push through a multi-billion dollar package for technoking... Barf.

Besides that jarring example, I wish I could remember a lot of people making elicit abstract takes, on the failings of democracy and capitalism at serving the people.
But one is: David Graeber. He talked about bullshit jobs and the promise of the 15 hour work week according the John Keynes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs. I recommend youtube videos of him or reading his book.

I'm sure Noam Chomsky has some good points.

There's also Norm Finklesteins comment about what he calls a mausoleum in New York, a multi-million dollar building owned by internationals that's empty, all the while there's homeless outside. The contrast is striking. I've heard Greek has had similar problems in recent past of foreigners owning lots of the touristry spots pushing out the locals.

Then there are plenty of situations where there's some corporation thats the main wealth creator in an area. The majority stakeholders of course somehow finesse their way into more than their fair share of the wealth with some rationalizations that most people buy into without a second thought. But the math discrepency over the long term doesn't quite paint a copasetic picture.

Neighboring that, I like doing this thought experiment: It's clear there aren't any super humans on this planet. No "true" self-made billionaires IE billionaires that can make a billion without any other human involvement. Sure it's easy to become a billionaire when you financially hoodwink a group collaboration taking a lionshare of the stake by some financial contraption that most have no idea what's going on or have no negotiation power to be like NAH. Even so, there will always be the next useful idiot to agree to get taken advantage of to make Jeff Bezos rich. Maybe not an idiot, but starving and desperate to get food.

But back to the majority stakeholders. So the majority stakeholders get extremely lopsidedly compensated. Here is where trickle-down does work. Others have to find a way to "service" these majority stakeholders so that they can depart those wealth hoarders from the pennies pinched between their fingers and exchange that for food and shelter from price-gouging landlords in cities where building enough shelter at good pricing is such an insurmountable obstacle (My apologies I'm laying it on too thick). The trickle down effect in the economy takes the shape of how the wealth hoarders want to be served. If Jeff Bezos wants a stadium-sized yacht and a personal lower orbit shuttle service. Well the economy contorts, IE industrial capacity and labor effort, that contorts with its discretionary capacity to serve those needs and those who are willing to provide that can get their housing and sustanence needs taken care of. The stadium-sized yacht and spaceship side hustle wouldn't upset me so much if Amazon's work conditions weren't so notorious and also if everyone's shelter was already prioritized before reaching out for more absurd business schemes.

Regardless, our political-economic systems (Greece or elsewhere) definitely are failing some key evaluation metrics regardless of the spin proponents like to place on them.