> The difference is that the wealth from cost-cutting (automation/outsourcing) isn't shared with the middle class As an engineer with equity in the company I w

> The difference is that the wealth from cost-cutting (automation/outsourcing) isn't shared with the middle class As an engineer with equity in the company I work for, I benefit and I'm middle class. I think there is also a misconception about how much the capital holders actually gain. A lot of automation is deflationary in the sense that it reduces the cost of production, which in turn allows a reduction in the price a product is sold at to capture market share. This allows the firm that is automating to capture a large piece of that market, but at the cost of making that market a lot smaller unless demand is pretty much unbounded. You have to both automate and grow the market for what you've automated to truly make it big.