system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does capitalism deal with automation?

Let’s say there is an imaginary town of 100,000 families. Each family has one person working 40 hours a week. That worker receives in pay enough to buy everything his or her family needs. The town is self-contained, 100,000 workers are able to supply enough goods and services for 100,000 families.

Now let’s say that because of advances in technology and automation the town only needs half of the hours worked per person to produce the same amount of goods and services. 

My question is how do you address this problem? You could require people to cut their hours in half so that everybody still has a job.  But if you did that you would either have to cut prices in half or double wages, so every worker would still have enough money to buy everything they need just like before.

As technology advances and fewer hours are needed to produce the same output, what mechanism is available to capitalism where all the workers are able to earn enough to buy everything their family needs?
gpt
Well, look at history. Southern Democrats in the 1920s were concerned that mechanized farm equipment would destroy the world economy, because in that period for countries of the United States' economic type about two-thirds of the workforce worked in agriculture. Every robot and automatic device since the lever has reduced the number of people needed to do something. In the US today, farm and factory output per worker is at an all-time high, and is pretty much every year.

The people in your example would simply find something better to do.