Bonddad performs a great public service with his daily capsules and occasional topical reviews on economics. In his latest offering he states:

[Quote] So, why do I write about economics on Democratic blogs?  Isn't economics the realm of Republicans?  No.  Republican economists typically lack methodological depth; they look at surface numbers without seriously looking at the components of those numbers.  But there is a deeper reason for this: economics is essential to understanding what is happening and creating and implementing policy.  Economics is the tool that will help the Democrats create a better America if  we use the tools economics provides.[Quote]

While we are looking past the surface figure for the underlying trends, how about the impact of robotics on unskilled workers. Humans will be the easiest to replace in such fields as agriculture, fast food, and janitorial services. A 30 year old working minimum wage will collect social security in 30 years, but will be replaced by robots in 20 (at most). The current goal of the major Japaneese and Korean auto makers is to be able to mass-produce a robot for about the price of a new car ~40 thousand dollars. The software/firmware component will be rendered obsolete frequently, but it will be no more expensive to upgrade than buying a PC ~2 thousand dollars every 2 years. So if I have a suitable robot worker for 5 years my cost should be 40 thousand plus 4 thousand. The cost of a minimum wage worker is 10 thousand a year. Total cost 50 thousand. The economic logic is irresistable. No health care, no pension, and the "skill" of the robot worker will grow with some "Moore's Law" style exponential rate.

I might speculate that the resale value of a robot may drop by 50% each year.

Year 0: 40,000
Year 1: 20,000
Year 2: 10,000
Year 3: 5,000
Year 4: 2,500
Year 5: 1,250

That resale value is another thing you don't get with human workers. In fact, you get higher turnover for the workers than you do for almost every piece of durable capital, including robots.

Considering the emotional and energetic defense of Social Security & the fight for and against closing the border, the nail-biting about robotics is not proportional to its imminence and potential political impact. Robotic workers will necessitate a massive increase in welfare payments to the low-skill workforce. Robotic workers could make every human part of an aristocracy of the flesh, whose social role is to exploit robot slaves and make sure they don't revolt. Robotic workers may inspire humans to accelerate genetic engineering and bionics in order to keep up with the exponential rate of evolution of robots. There could be a bifurcation in human society between those who master technology, and those who are mastered by it: the implications for democracy are profound.