[mschuster91]

The consequences for societies that define the status/value of their members based on their employment/job will be disastrous. In, let's say, 20 years robots most likely will have overtaken agriculture, manufacturing and driving - by far the biggest job providers.

And I see no movement at all by our politicians to prepare societies for this shift, except a couple countries playing small scale UBI... and the USA actually try to go the opposite route.

[omegaworks]

Dear Leader is already busily preparing military and domestic border enforcement positions for underemployed citizens to fill to counter the coming influx of climate and economic refugees.

It's a great time to invest in detention centers.

[manmal]

I agree. In agriculture, the revolution has already taken place though. Even supersize tractors navigate themselves. A farmer can get by with a lot of machines and only a few extra hands, most of the time.

[slurry]

Depends on the crop.

[averagewall]

Have there been any societies that use something else for status where life wasn't horrible? I can think of schools and prisons where status comes from made-up reasons that exist only as a way to provide status and have net negative value to the society. I hope there's something besides jobs that can give people purpose while also not being harmful, otherwise we'll create our own harmful status games.

[marcosdumay]

Any society that tries using something not based on utility provided for status fails for obvious reasons. (What may change with robots, by the way.)

But I don't see how your argument has any relation to the GP.

[ximeng]

Inherited wealth will just become a more important determinant of societal status than it already is.

[XorNot]

Black market robotics will become a thing I suspect. High grade user friendly systems the most coveted - you set then up out of view and use them to drive your retail business.

We're going to go full cyberpunk yet.