You have probably heard estimates that suggest that around 40 per cent of tasks performed by humans in Canada and the United States could be automated using current technology.3 Even so, it is difficult to imagine that the adjustment mechanisms I described earlier are now obsolete.
An intuitive way to think about it is to observe that people’s spending appetite tends to grow along with productivity. With 20 times more income, people would only have to work 20 times less than they did before to earn the same amount.