First off, let me note that I was not trying to imply people don't have individual extreme hardships today. It sounds as though you've had your fair share. Hopefully you've come out on top of things. I , myself, have been through some soul-shattering and rebuilding periods in my lifetime. I also think I am blessed to not have grown up in a continually war-torn country or been on the verge of starvation as some percentage of the world is every day. What I was refereing to was the country as a whole going through an extended terrible period, where there really aren't those who can help you because they're expending all their resources to try to care for their own. That aside, I'll address your points in order.

First Question: I can think of many examples where there is not a profit margin to do so. If the cost of the repairs in a disaster zone exceeds the point where a future profit can be made, the repairs won't happen. In other words, I disagree with that sentiment. For example, without the U.S. government stepping in to fund Katrina cleanup, New Orleans would be in dire straights still.

Second: I understand the fundamentals of economics relatively well, as I majored in it in college for about a year. There are things like monopolies on necessities such as utilities where all the rules change and the people are forced to pay because there is no competition. There is price-gouging by established large companies used to drive the competition out of business. Although these things are technically illegal in the U.S., we still have mega-corporations in a few areas that seemingly go unchallenged. Gas is a limited commodity. The price will go up as supply becomes less, or demand becomes greater to due to automation. Granted, mankind will potentially need less for driving cars if a lot fewer people are driving to work, although I cannot see that coming close to offsetting the automation process in full force.

As for the third point: It seems to me that people had been taking care of themselves (plural, meaning themselves and each other) from the dawn of man until the industrial revolution. People lived in small communities or tribes with extended family. According to Wikipedia, in 1870 at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S., half of the people in the U.S. were farmers by trade. They knew how to grow and preserve their own food, cut wood for heat, build homes, hunt, scavenge, etc. Today, around one percent of the U.S. population are farmers. Few know how to grow their own food. Many don't even know how to cook. Few people know how to butcher an animal and process it so as not to kill themselves when they do eat it.

I am not trying to just be argumentative here. I truly feel it is unwise for us to be completely dependent on anything when it comes to survival. Disasters do happen. At some point in time (who knows when?--could be 1,000 years from now, could be much sooner), the magnetic poles will shift. We know that. We know there are also meteors that wizz by, sunflares, EMP's, etc., that have the potential to gravely affect such automations. I'm not saying that any of these things will definitely wipe out the machines. But if they did, and humans lost the prior knowledge and experience of their ancestors in knowing how to feed and shelter themselves, they would not survive.