BUT BUT BUT I was told by a free trader that automation is GOOD because someone had to be hired to build the robotic machine, program it and maintain it!!!!! Those jobs will be created in the US to re employ all those high school grad factory workers that were fired!!!! So free traders, where are all those good paying robotic related JOBS!!!!!
In a normal economy, pre 2008, I would be mostly with the free traders, if the automation was introduced organically over time. I would rather have automation than illegal immigration, for instance.
However, this is this is a wholesale tilting of the rules for everyone in America, all at once, with technology that is out already, available to be implemented. I really, really don't think anyone put serious thought into how companies would react to survive, although ten years from now it will be seen as obvious. But by then it will be irreversible.