[BillGoates]

When robots are making robots that make our stuff, noone will be able to buy any of the cheap stuff, except the people that controls the goods.

Labor is the only good most people have, and it's worth is declining. The previous generation could maintain the same lifestyle, doing less work. For years the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer, but the last years the middle class is shifting to poor as well.

The more "intangible" sorts of work are only getting paid, after the basics needs are paid, and thanks to the internet people are sharing those skills for free.

[lionhearted]

> When robots are making robots that make our stuff, noone will be able to buy any of the cheap stuff, except the people that controls the goods.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but the rest of the comment looks serious. Here's the standard answer:

As long as any human needs or wants are unfilled, there's a capacity for an unlimited amount of work and labor. As robotics gets less expensive, it will progressively replace unskilled, repeatable, monotonous labor.

As of yet, we're nowhere near having quality enough robotics to do abstract, creative work. Thus, more (human) work will become abstract and creative. The more mechanical, automatic, less skilled work will gradually become streamlined, mechanized, and replaced as that becomes safer and more efficient than paying people to do that kind of work.

> Labor is the only good most people have, and it's worth is declining.

Completely unskilled labor - working at Taco Bell, pressing a button every 17 seconds, unloading crates from a truck - the worth of those is declining. Skilled labor - including servicing robotics or operating a complex crane - the worth of those is slightly increasing. Knowledge work - research, biochemistry, computer programming, genetics, engineering - the worth of those is greatly increasing.

There has been and will continue to be a general shift from completely unskilled labor to skilled labor, and skilled labor to knowledge work.

> The previous generation could maintain the same lifestyle, doing less work. For years the rich are getting richer and the poor get poorer, but the last years the middle class is shifting to poor as well.

This is patently false. The average person today has twice as many possessions as the person of forty years ago. The resources, necessities, and luxuries available to people has greatly increased on the low end and slightly increased on the high end. Look at technology - what do wealthy people use online? Google for search, Gmail for email, Facebook for networking, Amazon for books, Ebay for auctions. Those are all available to anyone of any social class in the developed world. Think about computers in general - you can get a totally functional computer for web browsing and word processing for dirt cheap, almost free. This is an incredible thing. You can get a Personal Transportation Device (aka a "car") for very cheap! My 1995 Infiniti J30 was $1900, and that was a luxury car 15 years ago. It still totally gets the job done. Even the poorest people in America can buy a nice enough car, outright, in cash, for less than a month's work in a bad job.

That's amazingly marvelous. The quality of life gap is closing tremendously. The difference in goods, services, availability, and access is getting closer all the time. The wealthier are getting slightly wealthier because it's possible to leverage your good works to more people to help the world. The poor and middle class are getting much wealthier because they can transact with the people doing the best job globally at everything. Google is the best in the business, and it's available to everyone that can get online.

> The more "intangible" sorts of work are only getting paid, after the basics needs are paid, and thanks to the internet people are sharing those skills for free.

Actually, that's a good point that people are grappling with. How can we convert our skills that other people want to money? I don't have the answers on that, but I'd feel confident wagering a lot of money that there's where there's going to be a lot of growth in those areas. Creative people will find creative solutions to monetizing their work.

We're going to be seeing more writers, artists, programmers, researchers, designers (yes, the demise of design has been greatly exaggerated), and so on. Short of a brutal WWIII, I feel pretty good that my children are going to live in a much more pleasant, clean, stimulating, enjoyable world, with meaningful and interesting work to do, inexpensive necessities, and ever improving design, experience, and aesthetics of the everyday world.

[BillGoates]

We have more stuff than 40 years ago, but less than 20. What also changed is that many single income households are double incomes now. Or that people are working 60-80 hours a week.

15 years ago you also could buy a second hand car for cheap, but since then the gas price quadrupled. You can have a DVD player for the same price as a VCR 20 years ago, but does it really mean the quality of life has improved? Over time we also lost quite a few things, like real food or personal service.

But still you are looking at now, and more specifically to your personal situation at the moment, and not on what's happening and what the future will bring.

If cheap labor disappears a part of that group will become competitors in an already overcrowded market. And as I mentioned before, the global marktplace and internet is going to work against us. We will end up fighting over breadcrumbs, and only a very few, those with a truly unique skillset, will manage to have a somewhat decent lifestyle.

What you also forget, a big part of our current wealth is based on air. On big loans we used to pay for cheap labor in far away countries. And one day those loans will have to be paid back.

But try to imagine what would happen to your life when the dollar would become complete worthless overnight. Do you have enough goods to buy your way around, or do you still have the right skills to make a decent earning?