I think Hanson fails to take robots and automation into account. It is a fair question to ask: what will people do when so much is automated? Even what has been outsourced will be given to the machines & software when it becomes more cost effective to do so. Even worse, the abundance that technology has produced allows people to have all kinds of fanciful notions and ignore common sense. IMHO, technology more than anything else has enabled the rise of Liberalism.
The paradox of technology is that its invention is a product of our greatness, but in many ways it also facilitates our decline.
Automation maintenance and repair technician. Things need servicing and occasionally break.
I could net a few hundred to several thousand per day on old, manual machines with products that would easily sell now. And a huge loan for the machines would be unnecessary. But where I live, in the middle of nowhere, there’s a zoning law against any and all manufacturing, regardless of how small.
Regulations against new, small, domestic competition are part of the problem. Regulations against owner-building and many other productive activities also contribute to the problem, as do the excuses of environmentalism, animal worship, etc. Global bosses don’t like competition, and neighors (especially many pensioners) don’t want to see men at work.
There’s the medical/insurance racket, laying in wait to take properties while gobbling up a large part of the economy. Even the divorce/cohabitation/feminism/drug regime has scattered families that could otherwise be productive. There are lawyers, CPAs and others who’ve lobbied for more complications and trade secrets to hamper do-it-yourself-ers.
Have fun. Enjoy the slide. It appears that a few folks setting social and political policies feel that there’s not enough room on this planet for the unstylish.
People asked the same thing when millions of farmhands were put out of work by the McCormick reaper and other pieces of agricultural machinery. People and markets adapted. They did not become idle and live on the dole, which would have been unthinkable.