“I say we are headed toward an automated world in which brands and companies will exist, but the need for workers will diminish”
Likely correct.
I don't disagree, but this brings up lots of issues. If there are less workers, and population continues to increase, who buys these products, and with money made doing what? What do all of the ‘workers’ who aren't needed do with their time? Do they become a permanent welfare class? What does that do to societal structure?
Do we become more of a ‘part-time’ working culture, in which less jobs are shared by more people? How does that work, and who pays for their benefits? Yes, having automation might make products cheaper to manufacture, and thus more competitive - leading to greater profits and money available for wages. However, if fewer people are working and thus taxes go up to provide for them, wouldn't that just eradicate whatever savings there were from reduced labor costs?
It's obviously complicated, but eventually we will have to answer these questions.
I’m reminded of the fight scene in the Infinity factory in the movie “The Minority Report. The car was assembled from start to finish in a factory where the only visible humans were the ones involved in the chase.
It will pretty much come to that eventually. The only question is, “When?”
And these sorts of changes happen extremely rapidly.