We were told that by the year 2000, the advent of the personal computer would mean that people would only have to work a 10-hour week and our biggest problem would be deciding how to use all our extra leisure time! That is NOT what happened obviously. Instead, the advent of the computer enabled greedy people with access to capital to greatly increase the concentration of wealth at the very top fraction of 1% while the middle and lower class wound up working more hours for much less income (corrected for inflation). Human labor was devalued because so much of it was replaced by computers. As result, hard-working Americans became increasingly likely face foreclosures and layoffs instead of a glowing tech utopia. These changes happened not only because technology devalued labor, but also because technology allowed for less transparency around rapid automated stock market transactions. Technology also enabled the elimination of responsible independent journalism that used to be on top of horribly damaging legislative acts such as the overturning of the Glass-Steagall Act.

The evidence goes against robots creating more of a level playing field economically when technology has done the opposite so far in spite of similarly glowing predictions (or intentional distraction) of the past.