Some of what you say is true. Outside of a Dyson Sphere solar power is not ever going to be cheaper than coal, or even oil. It requires rare earth elements, expensive metals, and toxic heavy metals to produce, which does not even consider disposal costs. All the same applies to wind energy, plus they like to catch fire and spew those toxic chemicals for miles, and are a major hazard to aircraft, or anything within a couple of miles when the ice flies off them. You can burn, or you can break atoms, those are your only legitimate options. Moving on.

Most manufacturing jobs were not lost to automation. They were lost to cheap overseas/Mexican labor. I watched what NAFTA did as a child, my dad was a trucker til the day he died. My mother, like everyone else in this part of Appalachia worked in a sewing factory. Every village had one, with a daycare next door owned by the company. Mine happened to be a Civil War orphanage at one time. Those jobs were not taken by machines, they were taken by Mexicans.

Growing up, we were poor, most people were, except perhaps the Amish, but they’ve done a better job than most keeping the government off their back. There was honest work though, for anyone that wanted it.

It is true that automation decreases, & is going to continue to decrease the amount of workers needed to make many products or provide many (most?) services, but do not confuse the technology of today with what existed 10 years ago, when people still used pay phones.

The fact is that we would be in a far better position today if NAFTA had never happened, and our corporate tax rate was not so stupidly high. We would be in a better position if those products were made in the USA, even if highly automated, because someone still has to load the machines, keep those machines running, maintain the building, and so on. IT maybe a dozen jobs instead of 200, but they are still jobs, and it is still a company making investments in the local community.