The machine age is hard upon us yet its implications for the economy of America is not discussed by anyone in government. Humans are rapidly becoming less necessary in the workplace where computers, automation and robots are performing tasks that would have been thought science fiction just a few years ago.

Last year, an Oxford University study (“The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?”) was published that concluded “about 47 percent of total US employment is at risk” to be replaced by smart machines.

Below, robots build cars at a California Tesla factory in 2012.

Now an expert from the Gartner consulting firm predicts that one-third of US jobs will be done by a computer or robot by 2025 — that’s 11 years from today. How is society supposed to work when a third of the working-age population cannot find jobs?

Some in the government, in particular Rep Paul Ryan, advocate hugely expanded legal immigration to replace the boomer generation’s retirement. Increased immigration would be a terrible mistake in terms of what the future workplace will need, because many tasks will be performed by machines. Millions of additional workers imported from abroad according to the wishes of elites and billionaires would mostly end up in the growing permanent underclass.