You seem to be suffering from some sort of tunnel vision that lets you see only two options here: the miserable status quo or everyone getting fired. I am not

You seem to be suffering from some sort of tunnel vision that lets you see only two options here: the miserable status quo or everyone getting fired. I am not advocating firing anyone. If someone enjoys sorting cork, or if they are just too afraid to make a transition to more interesting and fulfilling work, I'd have no problem with them staying on. What I do advocate is actually asking these people if they want to stay on or be trained to do more interesting and fulfilling work. For those who do choose to do something else, I think it would be a good thing to make this option available to them, especially when the same job could be done by machines.