Decrease labor costs. Increase productivity per worker. Decrease food prices / increase profit with savings. *Footnote: Make working just attractive enough so that people will apply in sufficient numbers
I think about what kind of life that would be every time I see someone post-teen working in a BurgChickeBoxMcKingBell. Try going through one sometime out in the country, when you're far enough away from a city that there aren't any other jobs. See who's being employed there.
.... What a disgusting system we've created. Writer is right about the tech haves and the have-nots.
PS: BasicIncome
Minimum wage is afaict a "below this wage a person cannot support themselves" barrier.
But we really don't have a "below this level of boredom a human shouldn't be doing the job" metric. (And moreover, I'd cynically quip that it's probably in capital owners' interests to ensure that never happens, thus affording them a cheaper alternative to investing in automation -- even if the price is a substantial portion of a person's life)
Isn't this true for the vast majority? Most people take jobs not because they're passionate about them, but because they need money to pay bills and buy stuff - simple as that. Some earn more, some earn less, but at the end of the day almost everyone would like to do something else. Even in IT, where wages are high and work is comfortable, I doubt most are passionate about their work - it's a different thing hacking some fun app or game in your spare time and working on some monstrous enterprise software, where you're just a tiny cog doing what you're told to do.