I don't know. Unless they build, maintain and repair themselves it seems like they just shift jobs around, and possibly toward higher paying jobs.
@BE @bhoutlook
I actually find them to be convenient, but agree they displace jobs.
Bill Gates suggested a robot tax and governments are studying taxes based on automation. Ideally we'd end up with a corp tax based on profit per employee - make more money with less staff & pay more tax. Smart people would work out the calculations which should equal the lost income tax revenue from workers. It would have to be adjusted by industry to match their typical profit margins.
Thanks for the link! A study they reference in it shows an estimated 9% job loss from automation. Not going to lie, I started reading the pay data in the appendix to see if the shift was towards higher paying jobs overall and my eyes glossed over...never could get into economics.
