Well, the article I posted directly tackles your hypothesis and argues, rather persuasively, that high labour costs lead those in power to consider industrializ

Well, the article I posted directly tackles your hypothesis and argues, rather persuasively, that high labour costs lead those in power to consider industrialization. Therefore, high cost of labour is an input to industrialization efforts, not an output. The machine only becomes worth pursuing when the total lifecycle cost is lower than the cost of sourcing and consuming human labour.