It's almost a central theme of "Brave New World." I've always wondered why 1984 gets so much credit for prescience when Brave New World and Vonnegut's "Player Piano" seem to have (from this vantage point) got our nail on the head a little better. If you haven't read "Player Piano" its about a future where, as all jobs have been automated, society is divided into engineers and non-engineers on the dole who are basically assigned busy work (either fake road crew, or fake soldier) so they can get money to buy the stuff the engineers are making.