Yea but at one point we need to figure out what to do with our lower-educated part of society. Not everyone can become a programmer. And once we kill all blue collar jobs and replace them by either robots or self-service, then what's left for humans to do?
I don't believe these people should be marginalised to menial or tedious jobs with little appreciation and a pittance as pay. Essentially to render them invisible to the larger operation of society. This might be hopelessly naïve on my part, but I believe they can be just as productive in a different capacity.
Trade schools and apprenticeships can greatly reduce the burden society must endure in order to level the field for non-skilled labour. I don't believe white and blue colour jobs need such a strong line dividing them and so I'm sure new avenues for selling services or exchanging things of value and different definitions of what we value will emerge.
Of course, this is now getting into an area outside the scope of - and much complicated than - a robot parking system ;-)
I believe they can be just as productive in a different capacity.
1. [Cynically] the unemployed are productive, as a discipline/threat to the employed -- "do as we tell you or you will end up unemployed" [with long list of implicit penalties].
2. The whole idea that humans must work to live is a weird cognitive bias in western political discourse. If you look at actual employment rates they max out around 40% -- children and pensioners don't have paid employment, homemakers aren't paid for their labour, many folks are only partially employed. Yet our whole dialog around how to structure society is based on the axiomatic supposition that full employment is some sort of religious directive.
Wouldn't we be better off looking for more culturally nuanced ways to measure human value than mere fiscal utility over time?
If i didn't have to work I would like to run more and become an archeologist. I would have no problem just living of the robots fruit of labor. Like someone born rich basically.
