[pmg101]

I just don't see that borne out in the real world though.

My mother worked in an office in London as a shorthand typist in the 60s, along with thousands of other young women.

At some point computers began to enter offices, bosses typed their own letters and then emails, and this category of job simply evaporated. Of course there was still SOME secretarial work, and some workers retrained to do it, but most simply had to leave the sector.

Isn't that a common story with technology replacing workers?

[ahf8Aithaex7Nai]

Unfortunately, yes. One real-world example was the former Linotype typesetters. As far as I know, they had union-negotiated benefits such as job security until retirement, early retirement, or generous severance packages. It just requires the appropriate political organization. It doesn’t happen on its own.