My understanding is that the only reason these jobs aren't automated already is because labor is cheaper. Unfortunately I think the alternative to a terrible job like working for Foxconn is no job at all for a lot of folks.
But yeah, you are correct. There are many shitty, hazardous, dangerous, health-destroying, depressing jobs paying next to nothing out there, where it is a rational decision for many people to work there, their best option. And if the companies involved had to make the jobs not suck, they'd probably be better off automating away most of the jobs. Or more realistically, moving to a country which was willing to let the shitty jobs persist, because hey, jobs.
But "better than subsistence farming" shouldn't be the bar we're trying to clear in the 21st century.
The question about automation, for me, is one of how we can more sensibly organise the necessary work so that we can each share both the labour and its products?
I dream of a world where I can make machines to save work, and know I'm not putting somebody out of a job they need to feed themselves, but reducing the workload for the whole of society, giving us more free time (or more stuff).
"I shall hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and quibble on HN after Dinner" Marl Karx
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/07/09/report-foxconn-robot...