> Over the past forty years, the rise in price for the median car sold in the US has far exceeded inflation. That's just one of many of potential examples. Are

> Over the past forty years, the rise in price for the median car sold in the US has far exceeded inflation. That's just one of many of potential examples. Are you suggesting that automation drives consumer prices up? Why would any industry automate more if they believed that in the long run, it would drive their costs up? > ...thus your conclusion that it benefits "society as a whole" can be disregarded. Perhaps "society as a whole" was the wrong phrase. I mean the group of people that encompasses more than just the specific workers in the industry undergoing automation. For example, the Americans who work as bank tellers compared to the Americans who access ATMs.