german automakers are experiencing this right now

The problem with the German automotive industry is in my opinion different: they developed cars which are not different from the kind of cars that many people in their market want.

Shareholders in the 70s made a lot of money. They'll be OK to rinse and repeat that history.

True. And the people selling shovels for the “AI” gold rush are making boatloads of money now. But it's still up to us whether we buy their customers' products.

That'll only work if somebody is willing to do the job for a lower price. The US may be in a different position the next time around.

Somebody, or SOMETHING.

There will not be much work that cannot be done by Figure, Optimus, Atlas, Claude, Grok or GPT by 2035.

We've heard this for many decades. I'm sure we will be hearing it for decades more...

I think we'll reach "most work done by unattended robots" around 2070. But we'd be better off if started working on post-labor-scarcity economics ASAP--might as well start learning to swim before the ship sinks. It might even be fun.

Someone once told me be a cook, a hairdresser, or a repairman.

It doesn't really matter if they can or can't do the work. If enough execs are convinced AI can replace the workers, they will replace the workers, and management will have moved onto other things before they suffer consequences.