They also could disappear from that market because they will find something else to do. If (in my mind, when) Robots and software drive the price of labor to the equivalent electrical cost (kind of like bit coin mining), I think people will do that which only people can: Arts, entertainment, atheletics, science and the like. We will let the automated work force do the dangerous work, the menial work, the boring work and will only do that which we want to do.
That would be awesome if food, water, housing, entertainment, clothing, and health care were free. Those are only available now to people still in the rapidly shrinking money based economic system.
A more likely outcome than doing what they want to do, is death or revolution (or both, historically they usually work as a team)
an additional possible outcome is a paradigm shift w/o revolution. As more people become unemployed, destitute etc, they will command a greater amount of democratic power (votes). Additional forces bringing the products towards free are: 1) If all the consumers are poor, the capitalist/business owner will need to reduce the price of goods in order to maximize the total value of sales (better to sell 100 widgets at $1 each than 1 at $50 each), because the automated labor force has (presumably) a low operating cost they can bring the price down to the cost of materials + electricity. 2) Because the business owner doesnt mix his own labor with the goods, he/she has little claim on the product (Locke's labor theory of property) .
