Even if productivity skyrockets, why would anyone assume the dividends would be shared with the "destroy[ed] middle class"?
All indications will be this will end up like the China Shock: "I lost my middle class job, and all I got was the opportunity to buy flimsy pieces of crap from a dollar store." America lacks the ideological foundations for any other result, and the coming economic changes will likely make building those foundations even more difficult if not impossible.
Huh? I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but mere "access to the financial system" wouldn't remedy anything, because of inequality, etc.
To survive the shock financially, I think one would have to have at least enough capital to be a capitalist.
Unless something changes, if I was a billionaire I would be ecstatic at the moment. Now even the impossible seems potentially possible if this delivers on its promises (e.g. go to Mars, build a utopia for my inner circle, etc). I no longer need other people to have everything. Previously there was no point in money if I didn't have a place to spend it/people to accept it. Now with real assets I can use AI/machines to do what I want - I no longer need "money" or more accurately other people to live a very wealthy life.
Again this is all else being equal. Lots of other things could change, but with increasing surveillance by use of technology I doubt large revolutions/etc will ever get the chance to get off the ground or have the scale to be effective.
Interesting times.
