Good article, George.

Currently, machines don't work for themselves, don't belong to their own union, and don't have 401(k)s to bolster their retirement plans. They're not the ones making plans - humans are. And if money is involved then those same humans will be looking to generate more of it by replacing people where they can. Will it be widespread - not sure. The way I look at it, if 10,000,000 jobs are automated and humans let go, then is that 10 million fewer people buying stuff if they don't have jobs? It's great to automate, reduce costs and increase profits, but people with jobs are the ones who buy so they have to remain employed - it's an interesting problem - just not sure exactly where it's heading.

Amazon automates and in doing so, inserts itself right next to the manufacturers of everything, eliminating brick & mortar throughout the world. But they employed a million people while doing it. Net gain, net loss? Again, don't have the stats to say. I would like to though because Amazon's model is akin to strip mining. Pretty devastating in practice while apparently making lots of people happy to get their TP shipped for "free". To be continued ... Cheers my friend.