Except that automation is entirely unique from what's happened in the past because it requires far fewer people to do those tasks. You're displacing industries

Except that automation is entirely unique from what's happened in the past because it requires far fewer people to do those tasks. You're displacing industries where the target doesn't require nearly as many people as the source industry. I mean... even in the example that you give, with the car industry rising, we're already seeing fewer and fewer jobs as all the electricians (as an example) that were once hired were replaced by a single automated machine and that machine only requires a single person to service it (or maybe a handful, at most). The issue is that your last statement is correct but vastly understated - the jobs affected will disappear, others will emerge to take their place, but not in the quantities necessary to keep the same percent of the population employed. Add to that the fact that the population and number of people requiring jobs is going to continue to increase and you're just cracking the tip of the iceberg.