You're making a very good point, one which I've been making for a long time. Chiming in as a Norwegian, we actually have much higher levels of automation than t

You're making a very good point, one which I've been making for a long time. Chiming in as a Norwegian, we actually have much higher levels of automation than the United States does. This is a necessity, since salaries here are so high. But we also have (1) higher salaries for lower-skilled jobs and (2) a very strong social safety net which ensures that you will live a decent life even if you get long-term illness or are rendered obsolete. It is my hypothesis that the Scandinavian social welfare model is a prequel to the way things need to be in the even more automated future: High taxation of high incomes, and either a very strong welfare system or negative taxation for low incomes / citizen's wage paid out to everyone regardless of income.