The NY Times opinion page suggests that robots are NOT to blame for our shifting economy. I think it's a pretty compelling argument (when applied retroactively, maybe less so when applied going forward).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/opinion/no-robots-arent-killing-the-american-dream.html
Basically, they're pointing out that the American economy has gradually slowed down since WWII, and that this isn't the fault of technology but of politics. Technological advances have been killing jobs for centuries, but it's only in the past few decades that we've really decided to let those advances increase unemployment, suppress wages, and aggregate wealth at the top. Those consequences are all dictated by our policy decisions, not the technologies themselves.
So maybe "blame the robots" is just another scapegoat designed to distract us from America's gradual shift towards deliberate oligarchy? We've continuously eroded worker protections and undermined the middle class in order to enrich the wealthiest 0.1% of our citizens. Robots have been one tool in that process, but they're probably not the driving force. Tax rates that favor the wealthy, shifting from pensions to 401k plans, disbanding labor unions, and curtailing the minimum wage are probably more responsible for these shifts than are increased worker productivity. The economy isn't slowly stagnating because there is less work for people to do, it is stagnating because we've throttled demand by impoverishing consumers.
Interestingly, they also make the point that "blame the robots" (from the left) is just another form of "blame the immigrants" (from the right). They're both misdirections, politically useful scapegoats designed to obscure the fact that our real problems are all related to the carefully orchestrated consolidation of all economic gains to only the wealthiest Americans, enacted by both parties. Maybe "blame the rich" is a more accurate assessment.
I also like the fact that unlike most opinion pieces, this one actually makes some concrete suggestions on how to improve this situation, instead of just pontificating about how dire the problem is. They suggest
1. curbing corporate stock buyback programs
2. increasing tax rates on corporations and the wealthy, and using those taxes to retrain the workforce
3. legislating universal child care and elder care, to allow wage earners to work.
Personally I tend to agree with this view. It also reminds me of this fairy tale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6IZi61qDj4However, this being an elephant in the room wrt to the wellbeing of the society as a whole, it is my opinion that the scale and velocity of the (upcoming? [3]) automation is another elephant in the same room, especially within the context of the currently prevailing social contract, as they call it. Granted, my opinion is based on a relatively limited investigation of the subject, but as I see it, robots-wise we have enetred the upper part of the hockey stick, as Wait But Why explained it so vividly [1]. And hockey stick, i.e. exponential/compounding is beyond comprehension for the human, as Albert Bartlett explained it brilliantly in person on many, many occasions [2] (Note that he also pinpoints some other elephants in the room).
One anecdote on hockey stick: roughly a year ago I realised the driverless cars can become a reality and done some investigaiton to see when this will happen, next thing I know EU (my homeland) is planning to legally allow self-driving cars in 2019.
Another anecdote: recently there was awe on this topic as well on the AlphaGo humiliating the best human Go player, but more importantly a) it has done it relying on "AI intuition" (Go is still too complex for brute force with current technology) and b) some Go professionals following the duel were stunned - they did expect that computer will beat best human in Go eventually, but only in 10 years or more, not today.
My take from these investigations and experiences: things are going forward much, much faster than expected, as one would expect [sic!] from an exponential/hockey stick.
References (some are repeated for completeness, they have already been posted in this thread by other posters):
[1] Wait But Why. AI Revolution,
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html[2] A.A. Bartlett. Arithmetic, Populaiton and Energy,
http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.html [3] CGPGrey. Humans Need Not Apply,
http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/humans-need-not-apply