I may be slightly less pessimistic than you. I think the percentage of the population that could lead happy and useful lives if relieved of the need for productive labor is considerably higher.
Somewhere between 5% and 25%, perhaps.
But of course that still leaves 75% to 95% of the population screwed.
My other concern is that it seems to me this is the natural end point of the free market economy. The market commits suicide and puts itself out of business.
So is there any way to stop or slow this process other than massive government intervention, a cure perhaps worse than the disease?
That is another question: who can afford to actually buy the products and services in this scenario? Or does the Government just pay companies to provide it in order to keep the idle masses from rioting?
Kurt Vonnegut wrote an interesting book back in the early 1950s that predicted this problem. It is called “Player Piano” and in many ways is surprisingly prescient.
Get the DMV involved in the process. That’ll grind things down to glacial speed.
Hey, the machines could always become unionized...