My current thesis is that robots (have to sense the world, make decisions, move freely, and respond to stimuli) only make sense in markets with labor shortages.

AKA - if people are willing to do it for cheap, it probably won't make sense to get a robot involved.

Why we need to shrink the labor pool. Better to think UBI enables automation than it saves us from automation.

I haven't heard that thought before, but it's an interesting one.

Probably won't help with any of those folks opposed to UBI because "people get meaning from work." Proponents of that view must know a hidden trove of self-actualized retail workers.

It's best to assume that as a rule, people don't get meaning from work that can easily (if not inexpensively) be done by a robot.