[backwoods-engineer]

Maggie, Of course machines break down. People have to fix them. But you need fewer people, and since these people have to be skilled, in general they are more responsible than the people they replaced. How do I know these things? My company has a highly-automated plastics production line, and because of this is the last company of its kind that manufactures our type of goods in the US. So, maybe people would rather all our manufacturing go to China?

Companies do not exist to give people jobs. They exist to make a profit, and jobs are a side effect.

[tbw2]

There are over a billion people without regular electricity, two billion without sewer.
There is serious demand for infrastructure for them, whether pee powered fuel cells, solar, biomass or natural gas power is TBD. Clean water sources and waste disposal is another matter.
To say we need to create more unemployed people and use electricity to run the robots while you don’t get power is a recipe for disaster. Same is true to say the wafer fab gets clean water but the barrio doesn’t.