[bhouser]

I think you might be looking at this a little too black and white. Perhaps a robot won't replace an electrician, but an electrician with advanced technology at his/her disposal can do the work that in the past required several electricians. I think that going forward, we will see a smaller and smaller percentage of the population producing increasingly larger portions of the wealth. These producers will produce more than they can personally consume. The problem then becomes one of wealth distribution. We need to find a new way to structure capitalistic society so that wealth producers can be rewarded for their efforts, but those not able to as effectively produce wealth are still able to live well. Ideally we should implement a system that can scale all the way from where we are now, to the point where very few people are required to produce wealth.