AI and robots taking most jobs would be a good thing.

When it comes to people freaking out about AI and robots, I think the "doomers" are right but I don't think they're actually doomers because I think, provided we handle it right, we'll be in a better world. Obviously the economy will have to be dramatically reordered for a world in which most people are unemployable but after the transition happens people will be freer than ever and we'll look back and wonder how we ever lived our current model. The vast majority of people just work because they have to pay the bills, not because they're passionate about their jobs. They could do better things in life than wake up at 5 or 6 AM 5 days a week to spend most of their waking hours doing something they're not particularly passionate about in some office, factory, or shop, and commuting to and from said workplace, with only weekends a limited amount of vacation days per year to have to yourself. In fact the nature of the important high-skilled jobs that remain will change dramatically and become more loose and part-time because once people have a choice and don't need to work to make a living no one will tolerate our current setup. A post-labor economy would also solve so many social problems it's unbelievable. The problems of saving for retirement? All gone. Women worrying over whether or not having kids will impact their career and fretting over the biological clock? Most people now have a middle class income without having to work and don't even need a career in the first place but even if you want one, no rush, just have kids and then train for the remaining jobs once you feel ready. Gay kid trapped in an abusive ultra-religious home but struggles to leave due to the possibility of being homeless due to no financial independence? No problem, at the age of majority you're automatically financially independent for life. Live far away from your family? No more limiting yourself to seeing your family only a few months a year or even once every few years. Hell, you only move away from home to a faraway place if you want to live there and fly to see family as per your whim, no more relocating because you need work. Seriously, here's an excercise. Think of any problem facing the world and consider whether a post-labor economy where everyone gets UBI without having to work would still have that problem, or to what extent. I think you'll be surprised at how many problems would just go away or at least be less bad than they are now if we decoupled labor from having a regular middle-class income. A world where AI and robots are productive as advertised would virtually end poverty as we know it. Everyone would just essentially be middle class with a small wealthy elite that owns the tech and those working in the few remaining jobs available. People could devote their time to hobbies, travel, whatever strikes their fancy. Will some people struggle with the loss of meaning with the loss of work? Sure, but it's a small price to pay for all the good that will come of this. It's not like our highest calling in life was always meant to be working with Excel spreadsheets, standing on a production line, taking random people's orders in restaurants, stocking store shelves, or driving a bus along the same predetermined route all day. Now, I get the cynicism of people who fear an apocalypse and think that we'll all be left to starve but really think about this for a minute. Yes, governments often do things of questionable morality and cater to the upper classes, and rich people often do screw over the lower classes for their own benefit, but there's no way they'll let 90% of humanity starve and go homeless. Politicians and billionaires may often act cynically and in self-interest but people have an exaggerated idea of them as mustache-twirling villains. They aren't going to commit a literal genocide of the vast majority of the Earth's population, get real. A new system will be set up, likely UBI or something like that. Even some billionaires are now promoting a system like that now. No doubt there will still be rich people, but the majority of people will get enough to live on, and the productivity increases will give us a lot more material abundance. So if you're worried about labor displacements, it's fine, but understand that this can be a great thing. Instead of opposing AI start lobbying for UBI. Advocate that politicians start considering how economics will work in this brave new world being created. It's ok to fear the future but we should also be optimistic. For all the cynicism, remember that we live a lifestyle that the vast majority of our ancestors would kill for. Our lives would be magical to the vast majority of humans who ever lived. That being said, we did lose some things. People in hunter-gatherer societies didn't have to wake up to an alarm clock and follow a tightly scheduled day. Of course we live immeasurably better, but our distant ancestors were better off in that one respect, and we can now get it back. We only freak about job loss because we automatically think of a job as the primary way an individual makes a living. This is going to be an Earth-shaking transition, on par with the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. It's going to be messy. It's best that it happens quick, the worst-case scenario is that it takes 25 years with unemployment gradually climbing to 10%, then 15%, then 20%, on and on while the social expectation is still that you have a job, but I don't think that'll be the case, once we get recursive self-improvement in AI, the mass production of humanoid robots, already under way, picks up steam, and self-driving cars, already common in some cities, spread out more, it won't be long before most jobs are toast. Ideally politicians should be thinking of the transition now. It could get messy. But we'll come out of it far better off for it.