Yes that is the elephant in the corner of the so-called "sharing" economy - who is paying their taxes, who is paying for the basic infrastructure that all these services piggyback on? You can't have Uber without well-maintained roads for example. You can't even have AirBnB without refuse collectors.
Can you consider not needing to work at all? Let's imagine that machinery/robots can make all manpower obsolete. Why would you still need to work if everything could be provided without cost? Why would you need money at all? Couldn't you just lay back, relax and enjoy?
The answer is no, just because human nature doesn't like equality. Nothing more.
The answer is because the automation still costs money, and that, even if creating clothing was completely automated, the materials would still cost money, and as such, they'd still charge for the clothes. And unless you've got a job (or basic income, but I don't believe that's ever going to happen), you're not going to be able to pay for the clothes, no matter how cheap they are. Same with food. Even more so for housing.
Of course, but if those working are efficient enough this can be supported. Once upon a time 99% of people were peasants and now we have the majority of the population providing non- essential services.
> majority of the population providing non- essential services.
'essentiality' doesn't come into the equation. Those who managed to amass a fortune being more efficient will want servants and other people to serve them (entertainers, sex workers, etc etc), which cannot easily be provided by machines. The economy will revert back to a fuedal one, where you become "owned" by the rich. Unless, of course, the people rebel, and bring on a socialist/communist form of gov't. I doubt that will happen though, becase the rich will see it coming, and nip it in the bud.
Why would the wants of the rich require a reversion to a feudal economy? Even if you have widespread basic income, the rich will have no trouble finding people wishing to earn more and willing to trade their time for that.
red doesn't sell well in the USA. We'll have full communism but we'll market it as something else. Probably still calling it the "free market capitalism". That's what we inaccurately call our current system and nobody blinks.
Most likely it'll roll out like public libraries / utilities. I already drive on government owned streets kept safe by government paid cops and clean by government paid trash pickup to visit the government owned library to use the government owned photocopier when I need to do legacy media stuff. Not a huge extension of the concept at the library to use the government owned 3d printer to make stuff or the government owned protein sequencer to make me soylent-tier food, maybe in 30 years.
The govt is a structure which answers to the people and is supposedly for the betterment of the people. The government exists only because you consent to be governed. At any given moment you can revoke that consent. This govt hasnt been looking out for the peoples interests in a long time.