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>Improvements in efficiency always lead to more wealth not less. More wealth, yes, but not necessary wealth that gets distributed (as productivity in the US ha
by mcantelon 15y ago
>Improvements in efficiency always lead to more wealth not less.
More wealth, yes, but not necessary wealth that gets distributed (as productivity in the US has increased, real wages have decreased).
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp195/ http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp195/
- Locke1689 15y agoThis is irrelevant because our economy is currently in the middle of the "retooling" phase (c.f. Luddite, Industrial Revolution). The wealth will be fundamentally unevenly distributed until new skilled work takes hold.
- Symmetry 15y agoReal wages may have decreased, but total compensation has been increasing steadily, at least on a per worker basis instead of a per-household one. A lot of that has been increases in the cost of health insurance paid for by employers, but some has been more vacation time, 401K matching, etc.
- mcantelon 15y agoI think that may be true for a minority of the workforce, but not the workforce at large.
- Symmetry 15y agoIt might not be true for the whole workforce, but it is true for the median. For the rich healthcare costs make up basically nothing in their compensation, so all of their compensation increase show up as higher wages. The really poor often don't get healthcare. But for the median, they get healthcare and healthcare expenses are fairly big compared to their wages. This doesn't mean that the compensation of the median worker has perfectly tracked GDP growth, because there has been a moderate but genuine increase in inequality in compensation. But it isn't nearly as big as the increase in the wage gap, and saying "real median wages have decreased" is misleading.