Robots aren't cheap. Complicated systems aren't cheap and neither is the maintenance required to ensure an up-time of near 100%. However, will there be markets

Robots aren't cheap. Complicated systems aren't cheap and neither is the maintenance required to ensure an up-time of near 100%. However, will there be markets where the high investment will be justified as the return is also high as well? Yes. San Francisco is a prime example. But, with that said, much of the argument here isn't actually technological, but political. Take wages for instance, many of our current policies such as minimum wage actually muddle the ground between an economical policy and a social policy. If we are able to separate the two types policies, human resource cost reductions such as automation and out-sourcing would actually make much less sense given that labor rates would be more closely tied to output and required skills of a given worker. Of course, as a society, we would need to implement policy including a minimum universal health care to ensure a sustainable life style even in our large metropolitan areas.