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"I was involved in a cloning project. .. to send me into outer space along with a lot of other people. Not the whole me - just a hair from my head, while I still had some. I would thus pop up in another galaxy in the distant future."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Consumption Robots  
  Humanoid robots placed in the position of consuming material goods to relieve human beings of the burden.  

In The Midas Plague, people were obligated to consume. By consuming more and more, you could graduate to higher levels of society, where you might actually have fewer things and more time to yourself.

Or, you could get robots to do your consumption for you.

There was the butler robot, hard at work, his copper face expressionless. Dressed in Morey's own sports knickers and golfing shoes, the robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again, with Morey's own clubs. Until the ball wore ragged and was replaced: and the shafts of the clubs leaned out of true; and the close-stitched seams of the clothing began to stretch and abrade.
From The Midas Plague, by Frederik Pohl.
Published by Galaxy in 1954
Additional resources -

Here's an illustration taken from the original publication of the story in Galaxy.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Midas Plague
  More Ideas and Technology by Frederik Pohl
  Tech news articles related to The Midas Plague
  Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl

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