> I suspect that productivity simply isn't increasing for a lot of jobs. It is a lot simpler: What happens when you have fixed demand combined with huge incre

> I suspect that productivity simply isn't increasing for a lot of jobs. It is a lot simpler: What happens when you have fixed demand combined with huge increases in productivity? If an individual has enough leverage they can capture the extra value.... otherwise they will actually find themselves worse off. For example, a cleaner today can handle roughly 3-4x the floorspace (etc) compared to a cleaner 50 years ago. That is a clear productivity increase. And I'd argue people still value clean shops etc as much as they used to. > I would expect that workers who can do that will be highly compensated for such value produced. It's more because as a group they tend to have better leverage and they aren't currently demand constrained. For example I have enough cash in liquid assets to cover 12 months living expenses, and I work in a field where I'm unlikely to be out of work for more than a month. Even more importantly a good chunk of the other workers with my skill-set also have lots of leverage. So if my job adds $1 million to the bottom line I'm in a good position to negotiate for a decent chunk of it. Especially because demand far outstrips supply.