Who's going to pay for everyone else to have free time?
That's really what you're implying here: It's an underlying theme stemming from the assumption that we must have an economy based solely on the output of individuals.
What if all economic output comes from machines doing all the work? Why would people clean toilets or wash dishes if they didn't have to? Wouldn't their time be better spent on their hobbies (e.g. art)?
The number of hours expected of an employee is hardcoded for employers. Whether it's 20-something hours or 40 hours depending on your region, this is essentially a fixed number that will probably never change.
If that were the case, then you're saying we abolish property ownership? Because i don't see how else can everyone benefit in such a system.
The only way out that I see is something like Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) along with socialized medicine. Everyone gets a handout from the government that's enough to live a decent life. Food and shelter could be free; which would make sense if agriculture is 100% automated (why let all the profits and control be saddled into only a handful of people?).
Then everyone that wants to can compete for making more money via their passions and hobbies or, for the few that can do it, actual work/employment.
Service industry is hard to automate - though we've done a good start with the dishwasher. Only 1 fulltime guy needed for every 100 people or so? That's pretty good progress.
So yeah, we'll always need folks for services. And we'll have to pay them well in future! That's seems a pretty good future to me.
