This is something I've struggled with in the past too, my job is basically to put people out of a job by replacing them with software, and those people might then suffer because of it.

I've come to the conclusion that it's not a moral failing on my behalf that people might suffer as they were replaced by code, but a failing of society. There's this belief that it's a sin to work less than full time from the cradle to the grave (minus a few years either side), that if you're not working then you're a sloth, you're lazy and you get what you deserve. More and more work is being automated, but there's still this pervasive belief that everyone needs to be gainfully employed. Instead, as manual jobs become automated, as a society we should be working less hours. The 40 hour week should become 30 hours, 20 hours.

What's the point in making somebody dig holes and fill them back in (or the clerical equivalent), just to prove that they're "working" and useful? Menial unskilled labour for the sake of it is just wrong.

My goal in life is to make myself redundant, to automate my own job away. If the programmers are out of work, then maybe we've reached utopia.