Historically, most mainstream economists have argued from the “big picture” view: automation increases productivity, so, as a whole, humans are better off, in the sense that we enjoy more goods and services for the same amount of work. Economic theory does not, unfortunately, predict that each human will be better off as a result of automation. Generally, automation increases the share of income going to capital (the owners of the housepainting robots) and decreases the share going to labor (the ex-housepainters).
