sorry but implying this is all done in bad faith is ridiculous. unless you just the only producer of a widget your profits are dictated by how well your market your product, how good your product is, and how your pricing compares. robotics reduces your costs after the initial investment is accounted for. prices do drop or remain steady, rarely do prices go up and much of that can be accounted for in increased regulation or embedded taxes

the only winners when government takes over an industry are politicians and those they choose to administer the industry.