In almost every industry, technological progress will bring unprecedented bounty. More wealth will be created with less work. But at least in our current economic system, this progress will also have enormous effects on the distribution of income and wealth. If the work a person produces in one hour can instead be produced by a machine for one dollar, then a profit-maximizing employer won’t offer a wage for that job of more than one dollar. In a free-market system, either that worker must accept a wage of one dollar an hour or find some new way to make a living. Conversely, if a person finds a
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