Robots Will Never Take Our Jobs...Right?

In recent months, I have noticed an unprecedented wave of fast food strikes across the nation, including Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Seattle.  In each of these cases, the workers have demanded a raise to $15 an hour.  Fine.  People are free to want more money.  Obviously, they have their reasons since 84% of NYC fast food workers report "wage theft."  However, this is not a question of desires, but of economics. Before striking, any wise laborer would be aware how much the employer would need to spend to replace the workers.  If the strikers are unwilling to work for less than what it would cost to replace them, they will quickly find themselves out of a job.

As these strikes persist, I'm concerned that businesses will find it more profitable to automate blue collar workplace processes than it would be to employ hirer-minimum-wage workers.  (E.g. Amazon is investing billions of its yearly revenue back into streamlining the management of its global supply chain.  In fact, Amazon recently acquired its first robotics company.  Perhaps, in the near future, warehouse robots will automate Amazon's delivery process so it can be operate for a fraction of what it costs to run now.)  If automation become ubiquitous, what will happen to all the blue collar workers?  I've read what a few brilliant economists have said on the topic and the general concensus is that as new technologies are developed (which destroy jobs), and equal number of jobs will be created to support the new technologies.

But still, I worry—what if McDonalds were to suddenly automate their cashiers or grill cooks?  How would that financially impact the workforce in the economic lower-class?  The adoption of new technologies creates both white-collar and blue-collar jobs.  But what if the transition happens too fast for blue-collar workers to adapt?  A transition like that would require training and education (and motivation).  What if the majority of ex-burger-flipping Americans prefer to sit defiantly on their rears waiting for the inevitable federal welfare handout rather than making the necessary sacrifices to educate themselves and qualify for the new jobs.  Now. I know this will never happen.  But it still scares me.

If only we lived in post-scarcity society with unlimited energy, food replicators, and holodecks, like in Star Trek, which I'm confident that we will achieve one day (e.g. The Zeitgiest Movement).  The real question is, how do we manage the suffering inevitably to occur between now and then?  Here are some fun thoughts from Star Trek's reality, found on Quora.

Read How can the world function without money in Star Trek? on Quora