"It's not the problem of automation. It's the problem of not sharing the work and the money enabled by automation."
Automation increases productivity, which leaves us two choices: produce more with the same amount of labour, or produce the same amount with less labour. Economic growth is founded on the former, and the Luddites argument rested on the latter.
We're now reaching a point where the environment can't support any more growth, so that leaves us with the job of solving the Luddites problem. If productivity gains mean that we need 20% less labour to produce the same amount, we can square that circle in one of two ways. One is to make 20% of the work force redundant, the other is to reduce the working week from 5 days to 4. The latter is sharing the work out and ensuring that nobody goes with out a job.
The problem with reducing the working week is that in a sense it amounts to a reduction in productivity, so it won't work as long as we have to compete with other countries who don't operate the same policy. I don't see any way out of that bind other than a global government.
One of the arguments against the Euro was that it's absurd trying to have monetary union without political union, but that's what we've got anyway. With or without the Euro, with or without the EU, we've got a global economy with no global government to manage it. That's why we have gross wealth inequality, and that in turn is why jobs keep migrating to the third world whilst labour migrates to the first world.