History Main / JobStealingRobot

One could not strike at something called “governmental policy” or at a slogan like “Higher production with robot labor."''

-->-- '''''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'''''

* ''Film/InspectorGadget'': Mayor Wilson speculates on this.
--> "He'll make [[DaChief you]] obsolete. No hazard pay, no "blue flu"...And he won't call me "Evil Film/{{Gidget}}" behind my back.

--> "....Techno-warriors who never get tired, never get hungry, and never say "no." Every army in the world will be made up of my creations."

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' a despondent [[Coney]] submitted to the procedure that turned him into a LivingShip after losing his office job to a robot, eons ago on a distant planet.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': PlayedForLaughs with the dingbots, Agatha's little clanks. When they start acting on their own without input from any of the scientists, the scientists start getting worried.

** According to a terminal in the Supply Plant from The Pitt DLC of ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', before the war the factory's workers were replaced by modified Protectrons and when they found out they blamed the foreman and tried to murder him ([[UngratefulBastard even though he tried to cover for them]]). When the robots were sent to stop the confrontation [[TooDumbToLive the workers attacked them]] and were promptly vaporized.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E10TheStarsAtNight The Stars at Night]]", Admiral Buenamigo proposes that the ''California'' class be retired in favor of his new fully automated ''Texas'' class. The claim is that the new AI ships can do the job of the ''California''[=s=] in a fraction of the time. [[spolier:Except it turns out that the AI ships make a crucial mistake related to the Prime Directive, and a major flaw is discovered in their programming that results in them turning against Buenamigo and Starfleet. All three completed AI ships (''Aledo'', ''Dallas'', and ''Corpus Christi'') are destroyed by the end of the episode, ironically by the same ''California''-class ships they were meant to replace.]]

* Subverted in WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles: [[FunWithAcronyms C.H.A.S.]] is presented as a hyper-competent Automaton, that can do the job of any trooper better than they can (much to their annoyance). After his HeroicSacrifice to save [[TheWatson Higgens]], the impressed company consider him a fellow trooper. Then it turns out the government decided that robots like C.H.A.S. were not cost-effective.

* In ''Videogame/DetroitBecomeHuman'', RidiculouslyHumanRobots have taken over practically every job in the US, which has resulted in a 40% unemployment rate and a major factor behind the FantasticRacism.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': 479er is clearly feeling very threatened by Delta, but calms down quickly when she discovers that he can't fly. Also, while not replacing her on the team or driving anyone out of the unit, Tex quickly takes Carolina's spot at the top of the Freelancer leaderboard. How much Carolina knew about Tex's artificial nature is not clear.

* In the Flash game ''[[http://www.kongregate.com/games/PleasingFungus/manufactoria Manufactoria]]'', the player ends up doing this to themselves by successfully testing robot engineers, who then immediately usurp their job (though due to... reasons, the player is allowed to stick around afterwards).

While technically this would allow humans to free themselves from monotone tedious labor as productivity increases, making people displaced by robots benefit from robot-made goods would require a major overhaul of the economy, necessitating political and social solutions, not merely technological. Many socio-political theorists and futurists do believe that, at some point before the middle of this century if technological progress is any indication, robots will indeed replace the vast majority of human jobs, effectively leading to a "Post-Capitalist" social order. While [[TheSingularity no one is quite sure of what exactly will that entail]], this is bound to result in a net increase of humanity's prosperity - the question is whether [[{{Utopia}} everyone will be able to benefit from it]] or [[FeudalFuture humanity would be divided into robot owners and everyone else]]. In the worst case scenario, reserved for {{Dystopia}}s, elites refuse to share the newfound prosperity and [[FinalSolution solve]] unemployment by [[KillThePoor killing the poor]] now that they are unnecessary.

* Arguably, this trope is a large part of the reason that there has been so little human space exploration since the 1970s. When it comes to conducting scientific research, there's essentially nothing that a human astronaut could do on Mars that couldn't be done by a rover. Sending human astronauts is just more expensive, since they require life support, food, a return mission, etc.

* Note, however, that this only remains true as long as there is both demand for more products (and demand is finite) and the consumers can actually afford more products - which is unlikely when wages stagnate or even decrease outright, as workers are displaced or shifted to part-time gigs, and increasing amounts of money are concentrated in the hands of the asset owners rather than circulate throughout the economy.

* Series/AliensInTheFamily: After Cookie gets a job and wants to build robots to increase productivity, the president of the company decides to fire all the employees and replace them with robots.

A plot that involves this will also involve someone [[EnmityWithAnObject hating the robot for the fact that they steal people's jobs - especially theirs]].

* ''VideoGame/SparkTheElectricJester'': The titular protagonist of the same name is actually fired and replaced by a robot twice, first as an engineer and second as a circus worker, for which he is replaced by a [[EvilKnockoff not so convincing copy of himself]], which he nicknamed Fark.''

* In the ZeeRust future of ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace'', while restrictions are placed on robots competing with workers, it's now housewives who find themselves out of a job because they're being replaced by {{Robot Maid}}s and {{SexBot}}s. Annika-709 of S.H.E. (Society for Human Enhancement) offers them the [[WeCanRebuildHim chance to become cyborgs]] so they can compete on an equal basis, while the Home Subjugation Front calls for housewives to "reject the soulless machines of modern consumerism, and return to a Golden Age of exploitation and domestic drudgery."

** A common theme in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' stories is citizens struggling to cope with mass unemployment caused by nearly all jobs being performed by robots.

* {{VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing}} parodies this with the description of the gingerbread welder robot, by having the ''robots'' be the ones who are out of work and need to crime to make ends meet.

* [[Anime/YuGiOhVrains Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]]: [=SOLtis=], an android that helps with everyday life is accused of this trope by several workers.

An application of TechnologyMarchesOn and subtrope of ManVersusMachine. Overlaps with LuddWasRight. When someone fights against the Job-Stealing Robot, particularly when using questionable means, you're looking at an EvilLuddite. More often that not, due to the fact that humans tend to triumph or compromise with machines by story's end. Compare UndeadLaborers for the fantasy counterpart. Compare and Contrast RottenRoboticReplacement, which is about a single character or group being replaced, with disastrous results.