Every time you use a power tool you're holding the equipment that destroyed a million jobs. Every time you turn on a computer, a billion jobs, maybe more, who knows. Who is to say the current level of automation that you exploit is ok but future automation makes people dicks?
The process of creating a power tool requires more workers and resources than a manual tool. Power tools have enabled people to work faster, make more customers, etc. So I don't know where you're going with this.
Computers did not wipe out as many jobs as you think. Accountants still account; they just do so on a computer. Film editors still edit; they just do so on a computer. Writers still write. You get the idea. Not only that, but computers and the Internet are a tool of self-improvement and dissemination of information. Computers have upskilled everyone. The playing field may not be even, but nearly everyone in the civilized world has benefited.
What societal good will automated cash registers, drive-thrus, and combines do?
I used two drivers to pick up cars for me, one to drop him off, the other to drive the second car back. I recently bought a tow truck and now I only need one driver. I made no money, now I make slightly more than no money, the assumption that automation is driven by nefarious billionaires is naive. Have a pension pot? If so, a large part of that money will be invested in the companies doing what you hate. You are that nefarious billionaire.
As others have pointed out, you don't seem like you're good at running a business.
Regarding pensions, stock market, consumer goods, I'll concede that point. I, in certain ways, support the corporations that I hate. My point would be that we have to choose our battles. If I were to act in a 100% idealist fashion, I'd be out on the streets. Paraphrasing Guy Debord, surrender to the machine brings liberation. But you don't have to hand your life over to Comcast.
Robots build cars, computers and conveyor belts sort mail, ATMs dish out cash - you have lived your whole life in the exact dystopian future feared 100 years ago by someone who was thinking the exact thoughts you are right now. The result - record employment levels.
Sheesh. You sound like a Republican. Yup, we have record employment levels over here. You know what else we have? Record disparity between the poor and the rich. Before I started my own business, I was working for a small agency. My CEO, whose job was basically to schmooze other CEOs, paid herself enough to have a townhouse in the city, all the latest bullshit, ate expensive foods, the whole nine yards. I was literally eating cans of black beans twice a week despite working 80 hours a week and bringing in millions of dollars for the company. I'm never going to be like my former CEO.
I'm happy for you that your industry has the slack in it to allow inefficiency but many, many do not.
Oh dear, I think you've missed my entire point. Slack is what it all comes down to. There's SO MUCH slack. Do you think the corporations who are firing elderly cashiers and autistic baggers don't have millions (billions?) to spare? They do. But they want to trim as much fat as they possibly can. And again, they're not going to pass the savings onto you. They're going to pass it onto their bowtie-wearing, polo-playing, pointdexter Ivy League son when they kick the bucket and are buried in their golden casket.