Very simple, in theory. The free market, which has really only existed anywhere for the last few hundred years but has spread in various forms around the world, is essentially an economy of scarcity.
People are rewarded by the extent to which they provide scarce resources others want. If the only resource you provide is one for which there is more supply than demand, you’ll make little money, if you have a job at all.
If the resource you provide is in higher demand than supply, your compensation soars. There is only one Rush Limbaugh. He makes a lot of money because tens of millions of people want what only he can provide.
Meanwhile, millions of people drive vehicles as their employment. Many of these jobs are going to disappear in the next few years. Most of the people thereby left unemployed will not be able to do the “new jobs” and in fact will not be capable of being trained to do so.
Extrapolate to all other areas of the economy.
The free market has had a hell of a run, and it’s produced enormous good for humanity. But, sadly, I expect it’s in the early stages of being counter-productive for most people.
With more and more people competing for the few jobs those on the mid to low end of the IQ scale can go, compensation will obviously drop. Supply and demand. It will correspondingly soar for those capable of doing the jobs for which demand still exceeds supply. Essentially all of which require high intelligence.
This means that more and more people will be “falling out the bottom” of the job market. No demand for anything they’re capable of doing.
This will not, IMO, mean poverty. The world of the future will be so productive there will be more than enough to go around. But do we leave control of the economy or even the political system in control of those increasingly few who are still in economic demand?
If not, it there any other other way to organize the economy other than by government redistribution?
I don't know. I am trying to visualize how it will be, could be, etc.
My nephew and I have talked about it. Ofcourse, he doesn't "love" working 14 hour days. He'd rather be traveling, or gardening or writing, etc. So, he, ofcourse, is bitter about the idea. "Give 'em basic subsistence". That could be how it plays out. A hunger games sort of scenario. A small elite than another technological elite services and a massive underclass controlled by further technologies.
I like the picture you paint better. (:
I am in full agreement with you though. He are on the cusp of revolutionary changes in this regard.