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That is not 'just life'; that's the puritanical work ethic that you're describing. Life absent of a need for labor-intensive work to produce basic goods and services is better than the system we have now. The issue is not automation; the issue is who benefits from making manual human labor obsolete, and in our capitalist system I doubt it will be the workers it displaces.

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Maslow put "employment" in his hierarchy of needs. As a trust fund kid I've never had to worry about living in the streets but found that without the purpose of work I felt pretty worthless. If you live in the first world you basically have food water and shelter taken care of for you if you're resourceful. The rest seems to be climbing status hierarchies and opulence.

That's not the point though. Your self worth and employment are not directly correlated.

Furthermore as our society evolves the hierarchy of needs can and should shift to demphasize employment.

What you are describing is the result of industrialized societies needing workers, soon that will not be the case.

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