You'd also have a country that wouldn't have elected Donald Trump for President.

Echoing what I said yesterday about a social safety net for coal workers, the editorial board of the New York Times wrote today:

When automation on the farm resulted in the mass migration of Americans from rural to urban areas in the early decades of the 20th century, agricultural states led the way in instituting universal public high school education to prepare for the future. At the dawn of the modern technological age at the end of World War II, the G.I. Bill turned a generation of veterans into college graduates. 

When productivity led to vast profits in America’s auto industry, unions ensured that pay rose accordingly. 

Corporate efforts to keep profits high by keeping pay low were countered by a robust federal minimum wage and time-and-a-half for overtime. 

Fair taxation of corporations and the wealthy ensured the public a fair share of profits from companies enriched by government investments in science and technology. 

Productivity and pay rose in tandem for decades after World War II, until labor and wage protections began to be eroded. Public education has been given short shrift, unions have been weakened, tax overhauls have benefited the rich and basic labor standards have not been updated. 

As a result, gains from improving technology have been concentrated at the top, damaging the middle class, while politicians blame immigrants and robots for the misery that is due to their own failures. Eroded policies need to be revived, and new ones enacted.

It's  an interesting editorial, and can be read in full here.