When it gets to the point that computers can do everything some humans can do, but better, faster, and with fewer mistakes...then, I suspect, computers will start taking more jobs than they produce. Honestly, I look forward to that point. I like that my dish washer takes care of one of my chores and leaves me with less work to do. There will always be more work to do.
By the time artificial intelligence and automatic code generation has become mature will these programmer jobs also become obsolete. Robots will take over most of the physical work, computers and clever algorithms will take over most mental/thinking work. What will humans do when we have reached such a society? Maybe creativity related jobs, or, in the sense of "true science", searching for solutions to problems which have not yet been solved. Until artificial intelligence becomes better at creativity than humans.
You didn't really mean that working for an income is the only constructive thing to do in life, did you?
The question is, as always, where will the money come from? If 90% are unemployed we really won't need robots to make things because nobody will have any income to buy anything they make. I know, why not just use UBI? There, problem solved, except for just one thing. Where will the money come from?
I would not like to be 20 something and looking for a job again. Spain for instance has a 40+% unemployment rate for the young. It is tough to get a job and getting tougher. It used to be a job for life. But no more. If you are lucky enough to get a job you will probably be working for a rich man who wouldn't hesitate to employ cheaper labour or replace one with a robot. Become self employed or an employer.
No, not the income bit, achievement. Not keeping busy, meaningful stuff. Making companies better, producing things people need, providing for and educating my kids. I don't believe in this student loan horseshit. Like me, they didn't ask to be born. My decision, my responsibility. Making a difference. I do gardening, but if that was all I had in life, I'd rather die.
The answer to your question is a long story, since the basic concept is alien to you. I don't mean that as an insult, I often need things explained to me because of my very strong paradigms. People who have no self-belief can't trade, unfortunately, for me at least, that comes with baggage. Look beyond the intro, which is designed to capture attention. The meat is very late in the piece, burying the lead as it were. Cheers. http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1173017/trumps-jobs-plan-faces-uncertainty
You hit the nail on the head here. No one size fits all, it depends on the demographic. In Southern Europe, the young can't get work. Germany won't get by without immigration, not my view, my German friend, a banker in the UK, assures me. They don't need millions though, I don't think. Japan is finally opening up to migrant labour; domestic help from the Philippines. The aging population is an imminent disaster. They are developing household robots, I wouldn't mind one, I'm knackered after cleaning the house today. Right now, the Philippines needs automation like a hole in the head. The Sci-Fi 'automation no work' movies never seem to be based in Africa or South America or Asia. If they export jobs, automate what's left, then either you have a UBI or people move to where the jobs are, except where the jobs go to they generally don't need you, they have more than enough of their own.
So taking classes, learning new fields/skills/languages, researching/pushing the boundaries of what we know, teaching, traveling, making the world a better place/volunteering...None of that does anything for you? I would think the world would seem a very bleak place with that perspective.
As was mentioned above, what can't be automated? Most med lab work is becoming automated. Three years ago, the best private hospital in Thailand sent blood samples for Vitamin D testing to a government hospital lab, and got the result in 7 days. They have since bought a machine that gives the result within 5 hours. A shadow on an X-Ray? Pixels that can be analysed. Translation? They are firing the linguists and hiring pattern recognition experts because that gives a better result. Think of something, there is a solution in R&D right now, or being theorised.