For years, the ATM analogy did significant institutional work. It let economists acknowledge AI's disruptive potential while preserving the conclusion that net employment would survive the transition intact. The analogy was reassuring precisely because it was historical — bank tellers still exist, therefore the pattern holds. Economists once dismissed the AI job threat on grounds that felt empirically grounded, and that dismissal flowed directly into workforce policy, union strategy, and college program design. The parable wasn't just a rhetorical device — it was load-bearing architecture for a decade of labor…