We tend to think that computers and automation will threaten only low-skilled workers. Paul Krugman argues that the opposite may be true, that the low-skill jobs that could be replaced have already been replaced, and that it is the high-skilled ones that are now at risk of elimination. It is actually harder to design computers to clean your house or take care of your garden than it is to do legal analysis.
Those middle-class people who have been misled into working against their own interests and supporting the oligarchy’s assault on the social safety net and public services because they think it affects only other people may want to think carefully about that.
Blue collar workers have already been replaced by robots We need to reduce hours worked per week.At the beginning of the 19th century people worked 12 hours and 6 days. Automation reduced this to 40 hours. In spite of increased automation 40 hours have been the standard for 75 years. Periodic recessions and unemployment pay helps balance production and consumption. Imagine a future society where all manual labor is done by robots. How would the economics work? We should be working for this.