In your last paragraph, you make a curious claim: "94% of a factory's workers have been freed up to contribute to society... without any loss in the good things life has to offer." You don't think the loss of their income might fall into the "good" category? The immediate effect of implementing automation is a wealth transfer from former employees to the owners of the corporation. A bit gets siphoned off into the hands of whoever built the automation system, but by and large, the little guy loses and the big guy wins.
Now, in the long run, as you claim, this probably benefits society - but shouldn't we be careful that the cost of this benefit isn't the hunger of former factory workers, who've been trained not to have any transferrable skills?