The problem here is that the problem has not been discussed.
Not once in this quite lengthy post, has the real problem been brought up.
The FED
The reason people cannot afford houses is because of the every increasing debt... on mortgages. House prices have skyrocketed. Not because you get more house, or the actual cost of a house has gone up. No, it is because loans have become bigger and bigger and bigger. 30 year loans? Back in my youth that was unheard of.
90% of america is owned by The US. Land just sitting there... but you can't live there.
As more people were born, the land that could be lived on was made smaller. Just to make housing prices go up.
We should be very thankful for automation.
Our problem is that we have gotten into the idea that we need to have a job so that we can afford a house.
Houses should have been paid off, completely, a century ago.
Banksters should be shot for the audacity to offer a mortgage (death note).
We should happily go back to raising our own food, with our own robot and have goods at an incredibly low price.
What we should really hate is that the kiosk at McDs is easier and more efficient than a human being for ordering. This is because that "human" was there, for the last 20 years, to enter your order into the kiosk for you.
RE: A view of automation that you may not be seeing.