The current population is growing. Evidently there is enough resources to population at this level (food, water, space, air, energy, etc). If production of resources is automated why can't resources distributed to sustain current population?
Exactly. We have the resources. It's just a matter of redistributing them in a way that a) keeps people alive and b) doesn't grind the economy to a halt.
People in the US need to let go of a lot of the ideas we cling to (taxing the rich slows the economy, UBI is communism, wealth redistribution == USSR) if we're going to live through the coming automation boom.
The bulk of costs of living in modern societies: rent/mortgage, healthcare and education. Can't be really automated in the near future, expected to cost even more as everything else becomes more automated.
I believe education is currently undergoing a similar transition that music and film and been through. At the end of Education will be cheaper. It already is a lot cheaper in some cases.
Health care is tougher, due to stricter regulations (rightly so) and reluctance from doctors but I think the transformation there is about to begin. Look at what is happening with (open source) prosthetics.
Prime reason for rent and mortgage that I can see is wealth generation and in a society where wealth is less important perhaps these will also decrease. You can see more and more interest in open source, not just in software but also other fields, is this a shift away from wealth accumulation?
From another angle, people are beginning build homes with recycled plastic and by 3D printing this hopefully will reduce build cost. And hopefully that will filter down to the end consumer.
