wage labor is the result of hyper-specialization in production and services like surgery is. we developed away form: "everybody should make their own clothes, needle, thread and buttons", so the manufacturing of those things was specialized (i weave the cloth in this village) in exchange for goods, services or money. now there are factories that only produce one specific button for one specific shirt.  this development is in conflict with human freedom though, there is a conflict of virtues here, that is undeniable.  it could be possible to see a completely different model of technological civilization, but i don't see how (what could be different is the internationalization of labor, no migration, no moving factories overseas to supress wages) if ai + robotics takes over, we will have a shift in this dynamic, but will everyone live like landed gentry or will there be an completely impoverished underclass which can't compete with ai slave labor.
Germany