> The problem becomes that eventually all these people who are laid off are not going to find new roles.

> Who is going to be buying the products and services if no-one has money to throw around?

I've wondered about this myself. People keep talking about the trades as a good path in the post-AI world, but I just don't see it. If huge swaths of office workers are suddenly and permanently unemployed, who's going to be hiring all these tradesmen?

If I were unemployed long-term, the one upside is that I would suddenly have the time to a do a lot of the home repairs that I've been hiring contractors to take care of.

The other thing I worry about is the level of violence we're likely to see if a significant chunk of the population is made permanently unemployed. People bring up Universal Basic Income as a potential, but I think that only address a part of the issue. Despite the bluster and complaints you might hear at the office, most want to have the opportunity to earn a living; they want to feel like they're useful to their fellow man and woman. I worry about a world in which large numbers of young people are looking at a future with no job prospects and no real place for them other than to be made comfortable by government money and consumer goods. To me that seems like the perfect recruiting ground for all manner of extremist organizations.

> If huge swaths of office workers are suddenly and permanently unemployed, who's going to be hiring all these tradesmen?

"Professionals were 57.8 percent of the total workforce in 2023, with 93 million people working across a wide variety of occupations" [1]. A reasonable worst-case scenario leaves about half of the workforce intact as is. We'd have to assume AI creates zero new jobs or industries, and that none of these people can pivot into doing anything socially useful, to expect them to be rendered unemployable.

> if a significant chunk of the population is made permanently unemployed

They won't. They never have. We'd have years to debate this in the form of unemployment insurance extensions.

[1] https://www.dpeaflcio.org/factsheets/the-professional-and-te...

I heard Spain has 20% unemployment among the young and the violence problem did not happen. Didn’t check it though.

UBI correctly identifies the problem (people can’t afford housing/clothing/food without money) but is an inefficient solution imo. If we want people to have those things, we should simply give them to them.

> The other thing I worry about is the level of violence we're likely to see if a significant chunk of the population is made permanently unemployed.

No worries, they'll just make AI robots to shoot people.