President Obama's warning about automation.

[JCanete]

6. It isn't that automation is bad. In fact, in theory, destruction of the planet withstanding, this

sort of technology gets us closer to something Utopian, where we don't need labor to do the work that nobody wants to do...where everybody can pursue cultural enrichment or whatever their passions are...blah blah blah

The issue is that we can't expect society as it stands to address that growing unemployment. As there is less work, and people have less money, we are going to have less buying power...corporations are going to have even less incentive to hire, and ultimately, there comes a point where we are going to be entirely worthless to the elites. And they will have it all. There's no incentive to use your land for housing, or to keep it up...etc. if there's nothing to gain from it. There's no incentive to produce enough food for people, if there stops being something to gain from it. Etc.

And with increasingly powerful technology(admittedly this is sci-fi territory) it will become harder and harder to fight back if the elites decide that we can just crawl off somewhere and die. Revolution is still possible today, because hell, we still need actual soldiers who have consciouses and families to fight against revolutions...but between drones and ai, etc. I assume there will become a point where far less people need to be on board to entirely suppress the seeding of an uprising.

Not that I'm suggesting Revolution now, or that I think such a thing would be good. I'm suggesting that while the people still have a voice that has to be heard, we use it to alter the fabric of society towards something that will favor people as people over their buying power. We really need to do this soon, because I think there will come a point where its too late.