Quote Originally Posted by WaCoTS View Post
....because the same amount of work is now being done by 1/3 of the amount of people, the other 2/3s of the work force having been replaced by machines, or computers and forced into other job sectors, or simply left unemployed?
Some of both. A lot more is produced, and there are a lot fewer manufacturing jobs.

One of the biggest problems the US is going to face is coping with the ever-increasing scope of automation. Work and income are going to be increasingly decoupled, but Americans are not ready for that. I expect the transition to be quite wrenching.