[WS:] So did Karl Marx. The Old Man's beef was not with the productive potential of capitalism, automation, etc. but with the constraints imposed on that potential by capitalist social and property relations. His idea was to kill the capitalist save the man, so to speak. That seems to be the main difference between Marxists and the loony anarchist left.
So yes, capitalist productivity and automation do create the material basis for a better life for everyone - more goodies for more people, less work and more creative leisure time. If that potential is not actualized, it is mainly due to capitalist property relations and distribution of wealth. To change that, you do not need to abolish capitalism or smash the state but rather to abolish capitalist private property and institutions distributing wealth and replace them with socialist ones. Under socialism, the level and kind of production, and consequently the amount of labor input and environmental pollution would be decided not by capitalists pursuing private profits, but democratically by pursuing the maximum public good.
Likewise, the distribution of aggregate surplus created by that production will also be decided democratically by taking into consideration general public welfare, incentives, and social policy objectives. The institutional mechanisms for this kind of decision making already exist - they only need to be implemented on a global scale to replace capitalists property relations.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."