One more thought.
There is a Freeper friend who recently got a job in a brand new factory running a CNC machine. She has a machining back ground and is very computer literate. The CNC machine is a robot of sorts in that it performs several repetitive tasks to perfection and turns out a completed part requiring multiple tools in multiple operations but still needs a skilled person to supervise.
Robots used judiciously can create manufacturing jobs. In her case that is precisely what happened. The company is new, a startup, a manufacturing company making new to the market parts
No doubt.
The question is how many people did the system she runs displace? I seriously doubt it is only one, as if so the company would have no incentive to make the capital investment in the equipment.
Extrapolate this out over the entire economy and you have exactly what I'm talking about. Increased demand for those who function effectively with the new equipment, and greatly reduced demand for those who can't or won't.
I find the discussion of these issues interesting.
Liberals immediately fall back on their normal position, the answer is government intervention and regulation.
Conservatives, as can be seen by this thread, equally automatically jump to the conclusion that reduced government intervention and the free market will solve the problem. Obviously, I prefer this approach and hope they're right.
But what if neither approach will solve the problem??
What do we do then?