I mentioned this some time ago, but the Luddite weavers in mid-1800's England, were not opposed to new technology. Many enjoyed a good living by using portable looms and knitting machines in their homes in a work-at-home society, and were quite successful in forming one of the first middle classes.
They were greatly opposed, however, to new technology taking away their jobs when mill operators set up huge lines of looms or knitters that could be run by a single person, eliminating tens of jobs per loom or knitting line operator. Substitute moving product manufacture from high pay scale areas to low scale areas and you have a similar situation over the past twenty years. Everyone enjoyed the low prices that Walmart and others brought us for products made in Asia - Until they came to realize that often enough, all those jobs we had had were going, son, and they ain't coming back, even when Bruce Springsteen sang about it. And we seemed to throw away jobs in just about any industry in some way, shape or form, and we're about to do it all over again as we use AI (whatever the hell THAT is) to automate all sorts of functions and eliminate all sorts of jobs. And that's not to mention how we've already decimated millions of local, American farms all across this country because people preferred cheaper produce to slightly more expensive local food that saves jobs.
I would suggest you find a book titled "Blood in the Machine" by Bryan Merchant - It's everywhere. It reads like a novel and tells the story of how weavers and knitters organized in the early-1800's England under the (fictional) name of Ned Ludd, in an effort to get their jobs back that had been eliminated by large mill operators. All they wanted was a way to feed their families when their jobs went away. They were brutally crushed by the mill operators with the help of Parliament.
The same wave is happening in America, today. We should not unwrap the era of automation blindly. Forewarned is forearmed.
