Automation under our current system—where retraining is expensive and the welfare net is minimal—wastes the potential of both workers and technology. It creates the paradox of both increased productivity and impoverishment. Outsourcing work to machines, particularly if the task is boring or dangerous, is a highly worthwhile goal, but it is not one that we are moving toward under the current system. And those who will suffer under successive waves of automation will often be the most vulnerable layers of society—the worst-­paid, with the fewest skills and the fewest resources to fall back on in times of crisis. [...]