That why I said it either goes to robots or it goes away. Can the current robots replace something like this? I don't think right now but maybe they figure it out.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U

That factory looked like it employed a lot of easily replaceable manual work.

You don't have to replace 100% of workforce, replace just the ones whose work is the easiest to do by a robot.

Replacing 50% of workforce buys you enough time that by the time your available worker pool has shrunk 50%, robotics and AI will be much better and you will be able to replace another big chunk.

Production-wise, shrinking demographics are not such a big deal (they still have a lot of youth unemployment).

Shrinking demographics is a problem due to a) the ratio of workers vs seniors, b) shrinking overall demand pool -> shrinking economy c) smaller overall talent pool -> less diversity, less 'geniuses', i.e. the real drivers of innovation, and less capability to mobilize for great projects