The magic middle step is that the job market would decide that crappy jobs need to pay a lot more. This would make it reasonable to invest in robots where it do

The magic middle step is that the job market would decide that crappy jobs need to pay a lot more. This would make it reasonable to invest in robots where it doesn't make sense today. One we make a few decades of progress on that front, I would expect the robots get so cheap that it's overall more efficient than we are today. In other words it would be the kick we need to get out of this local maxima of enjoying the benefits of cheap labor, and would end at a much better/more efficient/less abusive system.