Automation and income inequality

Is automation vis-a-vis technological progress, catalyzed by laissez-faire economic policy, really the ultimate root of income inequality? Should 2016 be the year of a guaranteed basic income? Will 2050 look like a robot-driven, pathetic WALL-E dis-/utopia? After I tentatively paraphrased Krauthammer to a particularly thoughtful philosofriend, I was summarily shamed into putting Piketty on my to-read list.