When cars got invented buggy whip makers went out of business. The horse and cart was obsolete. People had to learn new skills and get a new education to learn how to service cars and make parts for cars.

When the microcomputer, word processor, printer got invented a whole room of 100 people on typewriters lost their jobs because one administrative assistant can press a few buttons to print 100 copies of a memo or letter to distribute. Then that got replaced with attached files in email or on a file server.

There used to be five and dime stores, run by mom and pop operations. Until Sam Walton found a way to bundle services at his five and dime store and then use a computer to manage his inventory better and buy it in bulk at cheaper prices to undercut the other mom and pop stores and then take on the big guys. Suddenly Walmart put Woolworths out of business and caused damage to Sears and K-Mart. But that was before Amazon.com got formed and did the same things but with robots in warehouses to pick items for orders, and a 24/7 website with bundled services with Amazon Prime to give free two day shipping, free videos, and other benefits.

Now we got the Dotcom era with startups, each startup has a way to have a website that automates things that does things cheaper or for free that puts people out of work.

You even got programs that write programs now, you got Ruby on Rails that anyone can use to create a web app even without knowledge on how a computer works, without a degree, and with just six weeks of training in how to use it.

I myself had worked so hard automating things for companies that I developed mental and physical illnesses from the stress and ended up on disability. I took paper forms and made electronic forms stored in databases that put people out of work and made the system more efficient. I super debugged other people's programs to add in quality and security checks, but face facts quality and security checks aren't always done anymore and there is no market for me anymore.

Work is done by apps and websites, AI can write books and websites and apps, almost everything is automated these days, and if not it soon will be.

Yet there exists a problem, the people who pay for this automation that makes services and products no longer have jobs, they cannot do work because their job was automated and getting a new education in an advanced area is expensive and how can they afford it without a job? Even if they do earn a degree the student loan debt will cripple them if they cannot find a good paying job that can pay off enough of it that they can afford a house and car.

At some point you will see Unemployment, Disability, Social Security going away and replaced with Basic Income. Basic income will be paid for by taxing the corporations that use robots and automation and giving it to people who can no longer work for any reason at all. There will be resistance to this, but it will have to be done or face a major homeless and poverty problem.

There are still ways to earn an income without a job, make a series of Youtube videos and advertise on them, write books, try to become an artist or musician and do a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign to form your own company, etc.