[jlarocco]

I'd love to see enough jobs automated so that when somebody asks, "But what about the people who do those jobs now?" the answer is "Everybody in the remaining jobs drop down to 20 hours a week, the unemployed take up the other 20 hours a week, and we all enjoy more leisure time." I don't see it happening, but it would be nice.

It's a little disappointing that despite immense advances in technology and production, and increased efficiency, all we're achieving is having people toil the same amount as before, but doing something else.

[Dove]

I think that will happen to the extent that people want it to. It's happening now, in fact, with things like semi-retirement and freelancing and professional (but not rich) bloggers/web comic authors and so forth on the rise. You can live a very frugal lifestyle and have a lot of free time if you want.

Most people seem to be choosing to spend productivity gains on "more stuff" rather than "more time". And that is certainly their prerogative. :) I mean, with so many people working so productively for so many hours, there is a lot of cool stuff available nowadays.

[Evbn]

That is contingent upon minimum wage rising to match, or an Alask-style guaranteed income trust.