Stanislaw Lem wrote a pointed satire [1] on what might happen when new technology destroys all jobs. I think it's a brilliant distillation of the issues. (Alas, deploying Strong AI to solve the problem doesn't work out so well in this story.)

[1] The Twenty-fourth Voyage: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37246256/Stanislaw-Lem-The-Star-Di... (starts at page 9)