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We are paying them $70,000 per year to do something that could be done for $7/hour (or automated completely).

jimbokun 18y ago
I think there is something going on here that our society is having a hard time coming to terms with. We continue to find ways to increase productivity and increase wealth. But, there is increasingly little correlation between that and increases in wages. Or, perhaps, an inverse correlation. We are probably misunderestimating the impact this is going to have on our society.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  Increased productivity means more goods and services per unit of input. So unless inflation matches or exceeds productivity growth, we would expect wages and other prices to decline. I'm not too upset by this -- as a member of the lower middle class, I'm probably not making what I would have made if I'd been born 20 years earlier. On the other hand, to get the same amount of music as my iPod nano, I'd probably have to buy a crate or two of walkmen.
  - jimbokun 18y ago
    You're happy with the trade off of getting higher capacity in your ipod, versus skyrocketing costs for basics like food and energy against flat incomes? It's no longer as clear as it once seemed that steady increases in the standard of living for the common man can be taken as a given.
    - byrneseyeview 18y ago
      Food and energy are a pretty small proportion of my expenditures, compared to discretionary stuff like books, movies, etc. One would expect energy to increase in price over time, per Hotelling's research (the return from investing in energy assets can only beat the return from savings if these assets go up in value over time). It's no longer as clear as it once seemed that steady increases in the standard of living for the common man can be taken as a given. Well, that depends. If we have overestimated the availability of finite resources, that is true. But just saying so isn't enough -- to be taken seriously, you should rephrase your belief as something like "As my long energy, long basic materials, and short consumer discretionaries portfolio demonstrates, I believe that higher prices for energy and basic materials, coupled with lower average wages, will reduce the standard of living and thus reduce consumption of non-essential goods." And there's a catch-22, here: if you and all the other people who talk that way are also investing that way, energy and basic materials prices will rise, to the point that balance is restored.

I think there is something going on here that our society is having a hard time coming to terms with. We continue to find ways to increase productivity and increase wealth. But, there is increasingly little correlation between that and increases in wages. Or, perhaps, an inverse correlation. We are probably misunderestimating the impact this is going to have on our society.

byrneseyeview 18y ago
Increased productivity means more goods and services per unit of input. So unless inflation matches or exceeds productivity growth, we would expect wages and other prices to decline. I'm not too upset by this -- as a member of the lower middle class, I'm probably not making what I would have made if I'd been born 20 years earlier. On the other hand, to get the same amount of music as my iPod nano, I'd probably have to buy a crate or two of walkmen.
- jimbokun 18y ago
  You're happy with the trade off of getting higher capacity in your ipod, versus skyrocketing costs for basics like food and energy against flat incomes? It's no longer as clear as it once seemed that steady increases in the standard of living for the common man can be taken as a given.
  - byrneseyeview 18y ago
    Food and energy are a pretty small proportion of my expenditures, compared to discretionary stuff like books, movies, etc. One would expect energy to increase in price over time, per Hotelling's research (the return from investing in energy assets can only beat the return from savings if these assets go up in value over time). It's no longer as clear as it once seemed that steady increases in the standard of living for the common man can be taken as a given. Well, that depends. If we have overestimated the availability of finite resources, that is true. But just saying so isn't enough -- to be taken seriously, you should rephrase your belief as something like "As my long energy, long basic materials, and short consumer discretionaries portfolio demonstrates, I believe that higher prices for energy and basic materials, coupled with lower average wages, will reduce the standard of living and thus reduce consumption of non-essential goods." And there's a catch-22, here: if you and all the other people who talk that way are also investing that way, energy and basic materials prices will rise, to the point that balance is restored.