After glancing through the topic, I can see that, though they had to pull teeth to do it, we finally managed to extract some useful perceptions from our resident libertarians on the subject of "What if the decoupling of productivity from human labor continues?" If what I'm reading is correct, they believe that:
- Automation is in fact reducing the need for human labor in the workforce at the moment
- If truly pressed, they will concede the remote possibility that the need for humans doing labor will continue to decrease and reach uncomfortable percentages of the population as unemployed
- If such a trend will continue (which is hasten to insist they believe it will not), then the ruling class will be forced to exterminate the now extraneous underclass either quickly (through putting down sudden revolts in the immediate generation) or slowly (in a couple of generations when the underclass has grown lazy and stupid under UBI or some other welfare scheme, and pull the rug and let the bodies hit the floor)
- Automation should be not fought against as that is counter to all human history, so they are against Luddism as a solution at least
- And finally, they appear to have no other solution to this outcome other than "welp, free market what can you do?"
So,
if human labor continues to be reduced in presently existing fields, and
if any new fields of work emerge won't be able to absorb the loose human capital enough to get society out of the amorphous Unemployment Percentage Danger Zone, and
if we accept that any welfare scheme to alleviate the civic issues that would arise from this situation are fundamentally unworkable, what then do you suggest we as a society do in response to the problem?
Because if your response is "if you're rich, live the good life; if you're unemployed not-rich, please roll over and die and get out of the rich people's way", I'm sorry to say I don't find that a convincing argument. In fact, I will probably start listening to someone like Grumpy with his revolutionary talk, since at least he's offering me a path that isn't simply accepting my death without a fight. And most other people in that situation will feel the same way more and more.
"Old World Blues.' It refers to those so obsessed with the past they can't see the present, much less the future, for what it is. They stare into the what-was...as the realities of their world continue on around them." -Fallout New Vegas
