The reason for that is not the creation of new needs by regular people. It is the siphoning of nearly all the benefits of those productivity gains by the very w

The reason for that is not the creation of new needs by regular people. It is the siphoning of nearly all the benefits of those productivity gains by the very wealthy, so that the rest of us are left fighting for scraps, and they can use that wealth to change the laws so they don't have to share it. Never mind the fact that for them, the extra does nothing to change their lifestyle, and is essentially just a dollar-denominated high score, while for the rest of us, the smallest fraction of that wealth would be life-altering.