I think that, the new round of automation will kill a lot of jobs, that the those jobs that will disappear won't be replaced by new unexisting jobs.
Replacing jobs like taxi driver, truck drivers and related to driving transport machines is worrisome cause they represent a lot of the currently unskilled jobs available.
Also, replacing fast food restaurant workers will have a massive impact, even if these jobs are low quality jobs but they represent entry level and a way to get at least some basic income.
This will have a big impact, mostly cause what we do for a living is not only a way to provide our material needs but also our status.
Having a large percentage of the population with no possibility of getting a job, no income, and no status, it is a sure way for society to degenerate.
This will bleed into the middle classes, while the "safe" jobs get snuffed, like medical doctor, lawyer and others. Doesn't mean there won't be a need for them, it is just that will need less not more.
Now, think what a person that doesn't have any means to provide for themselves, what will they do?
- We, can expect a big increase in drugs consumption of the potent type, and alcohol.
- Sex industry would grow.
- Steady growth of petty crime, and possibility of high civil unrest.
- Systemic collapse of infrastructure.
- Breakdown in social cohesion, and morals will be either very loose or very strict.
Given the current political biases that complain against people living on welfare, at same time their solution is to time warp into the 19th century and privatize everything.
I find that libertarians, conservatives, neo-liberals and liberals are tottally out of tune with reality, there is a complacent ignorance of history, a tunnel vision that prevents any sensible action outside of a narrow field of interests.
Keynes was right when he said: "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." and "Ideas shape the course of history."