Well, I hope so.
I am sure there are great things just around the corner -- things I cannot even imagine. With enough automation, people may be freed up to achieve those new things and live in a world much better than the world we have now.
But is this inevitable? Today, I have enough food, enough cars, a big enough house, and more "stuff" than I really need. What will my life look like when we are all freed up to do more great stuff? Well, as I stated earlier, "I can't even imagine".
I can take it on faith that such a better world is around the corner, but what if I've pretty much achieved something like the max in material wealth -- I'm not Trump, but practically speaking I don't have enough hours in the day to enjoy to leisure activities that are currently available to me.
If there is no bright shining better world around the corner ... then my material needs will be met by robots, while I sit at home enjoying my leisure, while "society" provides for my needs.
I think we're heading for a Socialist Utopia. And how do you feel about that? The feral crowd in the inner city may be ahead of the curve on this one.
“I think we’re heading for a Socialist Utopia. And how do you feel about that? The feral crowd in the inner city may be ahead of the curve on this one.”
We certaonly know how to do accomplish that: the government takes money out of the economy so it can’t be invested in new opportunities and pays people for not working. That works every time to preserve and enhance the feudal system by denying opportunity and growth from the common people. In democratic feudal systems it ensures control for the rulers (see the history of negroes and indians in American politics), and that’s what Atlantic readers want.
If we don’t hinder the government from ‘helping’ us with this problem they will surely try to use it to bankrupt us and make most everyone an inner-city peasant. Dependency and stagnation are great for the security of the rulers.
OTOH an economy that invests it’s excess income in whatever new opportunities come along instead of giving it to the government for welfare will grow and prosper in ways they can’t imagine. Just as the ‘wonders’ of today couldn’t have been imagined by the employees of the buggy-whip factories when Henry Ford came along.
So yeah, you can expect a feudal (eg: socialist) ‘utopia’ if the government can help us enough...
(Hmmm... cheap robots making robots- wouldn’t everyone have their own robot after a short while? Why even have factories then? Capital would have even less of an advantage over labor.)