Amazon Go

Your periodic reminder that 'retail salesperson' is the most common job in America (~4.5 million).

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-10-m...

"If you are Amazon, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the retail sector, which employs many (~4.5 million) people in this country."

http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/silicon-valley-ha...

In 1800's - "If you are a farm equipment manufacturer, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the farming sector, which employs most people in the country."

Even if they "acknowledge" it, so what? It's not their job to create extra jobs to replace the ones that they've automated out of existence. It's never been the jobs of the companies creating disruptive technology, like farm equipment or cars or computers, to do this.

It wasn't Ford's job to find new jobs for everyone who had a horse-related career; same deal here.

and income inequality has skyrocketed since then.

I agree with you that income inequality is a big problem, and it is a major cause of social discord, but to be fair, quality of life increased significantly across all percentiles since then.

e.g. which society is better to live in:

    (low inequality, less wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 100
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000
 
    (high inequality, more wealth)
    10th percentile average wealth: 1000
    99th percentile average wealth: 1000000

Of course this is an oversimplification, but you get the idea: income inequality is not the only important factor.

You have to consider purchasing power, not how much moneys you have in your wallet.

If the majority of people get 10x the money they used to, they're not getting 10x the purchasing power, because everyone needs a higher salary.

This is also an oversimplification. You can read more about the phenomenon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease