Say we automate: what happens to the low skill workers that were laid off? In an utopia we'd re-educate them and let them develop new skills, fill new economical niches. But in China and India the people who filled those position lacked the education in the first place, and displacing them of their job there leaves many without one, or maybe drives standards of living even lower as they get more desperate. What I'm trying to insinuate is 'what will happen to the displaced low skill workers, and how will they affect society?'
Historically, and I don't have the book I am reading on this sorry. But automating a task creates more jobs rather than less. Usually the displaced workers are hired into management positions for the company, or are hired to specialize in monitoring equipment. Can you give an example in China or India of a previously unautomatted task becoming automatted and a worker losing their job? I ask not because I am trying to be critical of the argument (I know working conditions there are bad and companies have basically taken to both places as "dumping grounds" for cheap labor) but rather because I am curious of stories.
I will look for some more, it's too late at my time.