[mcpie]

The "working class" has absolutely no choice in this matter, so blaming it on them by saying 'they need to realize x or y' is quite besides the point. Skill sets and education are largely besides the point too. While it is nice to shuffle around people's skill sets and adapt them to other professions in the short term, in the long run many of those 'skilled' professions will largely be automated too. Even if those workers were capable of acquiring the fabled 'transversal skills' necessary to do the surviving jobs (which many of them most definitely are not), the increase in labor surplus will mean more people will stay permanently jobless.

Hence, a more collective ownership of the (automated) means of production is what counts. That sounds awfully marxist though, so good luck trying to convince people of that.

I personally would love to believe we're going to end up in a leisure society with a guaranteed minimum income supplemented by some tradeable activities we personally find meaningful (utopia, hooray), it seems more likely we're set for rentier capitalism with a large underclass of jobless vagrants though.

[runeks]

> Even if those workers were capable of acquiring the fabled 'transversal skills' necessary to do the surviving jobs (which many of them most definitely are not), the increase in labor surplus will mean more people will stay permanently jobless.

Great! Jobs are a means to an end for many people. The more jobs that get replaced by automation the more prices will fall, and the less you have to work to buy the things you want.

All the resources can never get into the hands of the producers without resorting to violence. Because if it did they would have no one to sell to and they would no longer be producers.

[jhuni]

> The more jobs that get replaced by automation the more prices will fall.

I am not as concerned with cheapening junk food as you are. I want to satisfy human needs through tasks like feeding the poor, healing the sick, sheltering the homeless, and educating the illiterate that aren't getting done today because they aren't profitable enough.

The ruling class owns the means of production and the robots that are replacing people's jobs are using these productive forces entirely for their own benefit. In a system whereby the means of production are owned by the poor and working classes, workers can scientifically manage production to satisfy human needs rather then personal profit.