Money, or barter, such as for their labor. The same thing they use to buy anything else.
Money, or barter, such as for their labor.
Not an answer to my question…just so I know we’re talking about the same scenario: we are supposing that a small, elite group controls a vast system of automated production, such that they can make vast quantities of goods at a trivial cost with no human labor being required. As a result, they no longer engage in trade with the vast bulk of humanity, as the bulk no longer has anything the elites need. That is what we’re talking about, correct? Well, why would anyone operate and maintain a vast robot-factory & robot-farm network churning out goods with no one to sell them to? It defies all reason.
Furthermore, if you’re one of the 99% of people who don’t own a robot-factory, how are you going to acquire what you need to keep you alive and what you want to keep you happy? You can’t trade with the robot owners, they don’t want anything you have. But, you can still trade with the rest of the 99% of humanity. Mr. Black the robot owner doesn’t need you to work for him anymore, but Bob down the street who doesn’t own robots sure does. Joe the non-robot farmer, who cleared his property of trees and started planting once the robot-farm owners stopped selling food, sure needs labor. And it’s not like Joe can just go buy a robot-farm starter kit, there’s nothing he can trade to the robot-owners to get one, remember?
And to your question, even if you stipulate that libertarians are selfish monsters and that all robot-owners would be libertarian, said selfish mindset would preclude what you are describing. First, as noted, producing things no one can buy, even if the cost to produce it is minor, does the selfish person no good. Second, public order is of value to the propertied, it might be more valuable than anything else, frankly. No matter how selfish the robot-elites are, as long as it can all be taken away in an orgy of violence, then paying out a tax to prevent that orgy of violence is in their selfish best interest.
And if it can’t be taken away because the robot-soldiers are too powerful, then, again, we’re just looking at two entirely separate economies: the elites who are entirely self-sufficient, and everyone else who still trades amongst themselves.