These programs need to scale, and you need money to facilitate them. I don't think there are very many huge industries where a large number of workers can flock

These programs need to scale, and you need money to facilitate them. I don't think there are very many huge industries where a large number of workers can flock to and be competent enough in to make money, especially if they lack transferrable skills. The companies dabbling in automation are doing it to cut costs. They—at a minimum—need to recover their R&D spend. The utopian view that automation instantly makes everything cheaper doesn't stand up when you consider the fact that our global productivity keeps rising while wages remain stagnant - it's easy to see where all that saved money goes. I agree with you fully, but it's going to take some radical government policy to raise enough money to fund these sorts of programs. It's very unfortunate.