Submitted by just-a-dreamer- t3_10l8zs7 in singularity
As a historic analogy, in 1934 first lady Eleanor Roosevet sent her lesbian lover journalist Lorena Hickok on a trip across the USA to report back on the problem of unemployment during at the height of the great depression. She wrote:
"The ethos of the "American Dream" had been so deeply engraved into the minds of so many Americans.....Such feelings were especially common with those who had formerly had white collar jobs as Hickok found them "dumb with misery" as they faced unemployment.[57] In New Orleans, a newspaper editor told Hickok "The whole white collar class are taking an awful beating. They're whipped, that's all. And it's bad".[57] One unemployed engineer told her "I had to murder my pride" before applying for relief.[57] In Alabama, a lumberman told her "It took me a month [to apply for relief]. I used to go down there every day or so and walk past the place again and again. I just couldn't make myself go in".[57] One 28-year-old laid-off teacher in Texas, fired as she was the most junior teacher, dejectedly told her: "If I can't make a living, I'm just no good, I guess".[57] The mayor of Toledo, Ohio told Hickok: "I have seen thousands of these defeated, discouraged, hopeless men and women, cringing and fawning as they come to ask for public aid. It is a spectacle of national degeneration"
Suppose we face large layoffs of professionals due to automation, how should society react?