The Importance of Technology and Automation in the Long Run

In the late 19th century, when the US went from being something of a backwater to the world's leading industrial power, there wasn't a lot of skilled labor in the US. Henry Ford is the culmination of this, but there's many, many people who came before him who were pushing in that same direction. But I think that raises the question, well, what would make it sufficient? In addition to technology and automation in the long run, we also need what? And so I would ask that question, maybe I'll throw this one at you, Simon, what is it that we need to complement those things?