Yes, or your company will have to invest in automation. Both alternatives are good.
Third option, we stop working on such large projects, and focus our collective efforts on making our societies and our environments more human-scaled. Again, it is an option that I see as good.
At first brush, it seems that any gains in automation will immediately be offset by duplication of administrative minutiae in all these new, smaller business entities. Administration, payroll, regulatory compliance, safety programs, training programs etc etc this is the absolute opposite of improved productive ability, is it not?
As to the third option, 'human scale' is just cresting 8 billion individuals. We will never escape the need for massive infrastructure projects.
> Administration, payroll, regulatory compliance, safety programs, training programs...
These can be outsourced, automated and/or reduced in scope. Each company would be a lot more specialized in their function, so it wouldn't make sense to keep the same set of regulations and policies that we use for larger corporations.
> We will never escape the need for massive infrastructure projects.
Au contraire, I think that we only push for "massive infrastructure projects" because we are addicted to growth. Governments push for growth as a way to keep financing their debts, corporations push for growth as a way to justify their existence.
If we were limited in our ability to grow and established that things needed to be settled organically, cities would be more dispersed but still dense and suburbia would not exist. Global trade would be impacted, but we would be forced to re-learn how to manufacture things locally. Governments would have to figure out ways to sustain the populations with tighter constraints, but we would not get things like the European dependency on Russian gas, etc.
Third option, we stop working on such large projects, and focus our collective efforts on making our societies and our environments more human-scaled. Again, it is an option that I see as good.