They're afraid of what happens if they do perfect robotics and AI and fire half the population (something they desperately DO WANT to do to forever resolve things in their favor). Unless they kill a hell of a lot of people there will be a revolution or they'll be forced to make extraordinary concessions like universal basic income at which point the proles start thinking about other basics needing to be free like medical care and gasp nice things.

So their choices are a massive war (may still be coming with China) though presently that mainly kills young men (not ideal as you've already spent money educating and raising them to the minimum age for compulsory service and that's basically throwing away what's considered an important investment before its matured, though it does have the benefit of resolving problems of too many angry young men without romantic/sexual partners by creating a surplus of women to men and thus also increasing the value of the remaining men and beating down further feminist impulses among women in favor of settling) and disease (which disproportionately kills the elderly and disabled who are considered of lesser value to these monsters) for quickly killing off a lot of the unneeded excess labor pool.

As usual the bourgeoisie will be able to fly to Europe to get a vaccine for themselves so this really only impacts the workers most likely to be targeted by automation at the lower rungs who absolutely cannot afford to even go to Mexico for a weekend to get some shots. Service workers, retail workers will get this disease repeatedly and be weakened by it and perhaps killed off at younger ages just in time for the imagined dawn of automation and the final triumph of the bourgeoisie over labor (as they imagine it anyways).