Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

Machines that free workers from repetitive labour do not, by themselves, hand anyone a good life; what they hand over is time, and time in the possession of someone with no cultivated interests curdles quickly into restlessness rather than contentment. A society that automates its drudgery while neglecting to also cultivate its citizens' capacity for absorbing, worthwhile pursuits has only solved half the problem it set out to solve, and may find that idle hours, multiplied across a whole population, become a burden rather than the liberation they were meant to be.

Which of the following statements best reflects the underlying tone of the passage?