There goal is to push people back to serfdom. They don’t care if the common man lives in a house or a shack. They don’t care if they can afford a car or have to walk. Their goal is to amass enough wealth (not just money), so they can bribe people to do what they want because they’ll be desperate. Robots, AI and Automation will cover the rest of it. They just need to keep a much smaller group happy who would become slightly better but still fearing they could lose everything.