> Mass automation is undermining our democracy in a very specific way: it's acting as the ultimate "resource curse."
This. This exact thought occurred to me about a week ago -- to my shame, a full year after I read The Dictator's Handbook.
The natural concentration of robot ownership in the hands of a few creates the same autocracy dynamic as described in the book for oil and other natural resources. Also, robotic factories can be seized and controlled by an autocracy, just like oil wells. What's really scary about this is that threatens stable democracies, like the USA.