I think there will be jobs for those with specialized knowledge or refined skills for some time. The jobs will change with "automation" just as carpenters saw with the advent of power tools, adhesives, newer jointing solutions, etc. That makes them more productive and valuable, and so it goes for the new changes already under way. "Hourly" pay should increase and the work week should shrink. Thus even with high productivity something like 2 jobs could be split into 3 with a good wage for all and more leisure time or room for family or even a sideline business. So even if the "demand pie" doesn't grow, the productivity rewards should help raise living standards while making more room for additional players. No that probably doesn't do a lot for the bootblack or the fast food worker, but even housekeepers should be able to profit from productivity increases through technology. Non-professional health care services below skilled nursing level as well. Think of each human worker as the foreman of a team of "bots." And with proper direction we can make these new devices repairable, creating a whole 'nother spectrum of jobs in service, repair, and refurbishing. Then there is the educational system improvements needed to train and retrain workers for this world. But I really think "job splitting" is part of the answer, raising pay by clawing back productivity gains while cutting hours per week per worker.
I guess I think there must be better answers than socialism or a massive welfare state populated by the lilies of the field.
I don't necessarily agree with you, @Jacob Petersheim, but I'll give you a "like" for a well-thought-out reply.
Well I was doing my best to arrive at a pathway that feels constructive and meaningful and rewarding to people. Life on basic assistance filling days with meaningless hobbies just doesn't sit well with me. I also don't think that globalism is an answer, since over time standards of living and pay are rising making the "race to the bottom" nearly over. The endgame feels like a small elite on top and a vast "grey goo" of working poor eking by and even more destitute folks and mendicants and criminals than we have now preying on them.
A significant concern for me is the large percentage of people who are likely to be without purpose. Yes, we already have a large number of people who would fit into that definition today, many of them there voluntarily. There is even a term for them: useless eaters. However, at some point, there will inevitably be a push by the government, the deep state, or some other shadowy power to eliminate the useless eaters, and this is likely to include those who are in that category involuntarily, either because any job that they might have been suited for has been made defunct or due to age or infirmity.
Well there are several factors that have made demographic collapse look unavoidable now. Delayed maturation means once people finally grow out of adolescence they are looking at the obstacles of a geriatric pregnancy (age 35) with conception woes and pregnancy failures and birth defects. Even if they have one kid, by the time a second looks practical they're pushing 40 and it's even less advisable. Anti-conception drugs and abortion help make this possible. As difficult as we all understand it to be, demographers are alarmed by the low rate of teen unwed pregnancies. While it looks like a stark and heavy-handed thing to talk about on a personal scale, population-wise this has always been important to our species. So while there is plenty of hand-wringing in governments over the collapse... might those be Crocodile Tears for something intentionally engineered? The WEF's origins go back to 1971, just after the "free love" culture had taken firm root.
I have seen that here among the Native population. Beginning in the 1970s, the Federal government took the role of the Native male away and put all those people on one or another form of welfare. It has led to alcoholism, drugs "addiction" (cannabis mostly), and suicide in large numbers. The females still have a role but that is going away as well, and those who stay in their ancestral homeland often succumb to the same maladies. The result is a destruction of a society and an entire way of life.