If you can invest capital to increase productivity, demand for labor goes down, and wages will be kept down. The only way to increase wages is then to proporti

If you can invest capital to increase productivity, demand for labor goes down, and wages will be kept down. The only way to increase wages is then to proportionately increase demand for goods and services so that, despite the productivity gains, there is an increasing demand for labor. We are also seeing automation (capital) and (cheap) overseas labor substituted for domestic labor beginning in the 80s. Consumer demand did not keep pace, so wages stagnated.