Nope. So far, automation has been about efficiency not liberating oppressed workers. I don't think that will change anytime soon. Millions of people endure 'mind-numbing boring work' because that's what they need to do to survive. Do you really think they're going to view their replacement as a reprieve from their oppression? They aren't paid afterwards, they're put out on their ass.
In a society that demands employment, 50% unemployment is a death-sentence. That's half your population draining the subsidies dry and raising taxes on the working half. Suddenly both sides are angry. Prisons become overburdened, people dead in the streets, Governments overthrown, CEO assassinations, etc.
Sure, in a fantasy land where things don't cost money and land isn't 'owned', 50% unemployment could be ok. Unfortunately that's not us yet.
I'm not saying the focus is, but an accidental side effect is the "pushing up" of labour so that the bottom end of the market have no place in the capitalist hierarchy. The result of this is massive amounts of low skilled yet unemployed people who are a "tax burden" (or is this just a side effect of capitalism's relentless push to a service economy). That is basically Europe and the US summed up.
Society is polarised by automation. The gap widens every day.
I've destroyed hundreds if not thousands of manual work positions over the years by making software that replaces them. I've now got to support the uenmploymed with my tax contribution. Welcome to the flawed turd-bag that capitalism is.
In a society that demands employment, 50% unemployment is a death-sentence. That's half your population draining the subsidies dry and raising taxes on the working half. Suddenly both sides are angry. Prisons become overburdened, people dead in the streets, Governments overthrown, CEO assassinations, etc.
Sure, in a fantasy land where things don't cost money and land isn't 'owned', 50% unemployment could be ok. Unfortunately that's not us yet.