The notion that automation is somehow reducing the number of jobs is a flawed one. Did automating farm work have the same impact?<p>The amount of skills and capital equipment, including robotic systems, a society has determines how wealthy it is.<p>If you can produce with a machine what ten men could produce ten years ago, and no one else has this advantage, all this means is that YOU get to spend those nine saved salaries on extra things nine other people will be paid to provide.<p>Or you can save those nine salaries in the bank where they can be loaned out to hire 9 people on some new venture.<p>But if everybody has access to the same technology, the price of the thing you're making will just drop 90%. You'll only get those extra 9 salaries while you have a technological advantage over your competitors.<p>And history bears this out. Automobiles were very costly until mass production, then costs were slashed and the average middle class person could afford them.<p>And automakers armed with the technology were not able to rest on their laurels. If they did not continue to chase technological advantage successfully, they eventually fail. Unless bailed out by government, of course.<p>So there's nothing to fear from technology. It is the source of middle class well-being, not its scourge.