I'm 'work-vacationing' in Brazil right now, and for some reason this is very much on my mind. Labor is very cheap here. Restaurants are heavily overstaffed by American standards, as are grocery stores and even hair parlors. I can't help but wonder what would happen here if cheap robotics existed. For most of the lower class here "retraining" probably isn't a possibility.
The difference in education level between poor Brazilians and poor Americans is very large. Retraining requires a base to start with, and most poor Brazilians simply don't have that base.
I'm skeptical to some degree about the potential for retraining of Americans too, but I at least have some optimism there.
