This has happened a lot in history, but I'm no historian. The way I understand it, the automation (or technological improvement) of an industry lowers prices,

This has happened a lot in history, but I'm no historian. The way I understand it, the automation (or technological improvement) of an industry lowers prices, and therefore helps another industry. Consumers to pay less for products, so extra funds directly (purchases) or indirectly (savings, investment) flow into new industries. In the short term, workers displaced by automation are unemployed, but in the long term, they have growing employment opportunities elsewhere (or even in the same industry, later). What's more, I feel like once automation takes hold in an industry, efficiency gains must accelerate relative to human laborers-- helping everyone. Sure, greater education and methodological improvements help humans to produce more for cheaper, but Moore's Law is a hell of an ally. IANAE(conomist), but I couldn't explain why the world didn't disintegrate after the Industrial Revolution(s) any other way.