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Aren't we supposed to be incredibly productive compared to a century ago? "We" (not me) certainly have more megayachts and private jets traversing the Earth tha
by hotpotamus 3y ago
Aren't we supposed to be incredibly productive compared to a century ago? "We" (not me) certainly have more megayachts and private jets traversing the Earth than we did. You'd think we could afford some housing to go around, but I'm far from naive enough to believe that we'll solve this or any problem facing us at this point.
- jeroenhd 3y agoProduction has definitely increased, but wages (and therefore things like income taxes to fund welfare for the elderly) haven't scaled with the increase in production. Pages like these (https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/) have a whole bunch of numbers and graphs detailing the difference. Increasing productivity doesn't fix the loss of workers per retiree if the profits of that productivity only flow to the top. This can be fixed, but I don't expect a massive increase in wages at the cost of shareholder returns happening any time soon. I think it's more likely that those who haven't saved and invested enough to compensate for the shifting economic landscape (or those who made bad investments) will just end up with a lower standard of living than the previous generations of retirees.
- Exoristos 3y agoIt's perfectly possible to solve all society's problems. We simply lack the political will and moral fortitude.
- npteljes 3y agoWe must lack something else too. And I'm not saying this ironically. So far, no utopias succeeded, and that must be for valid reasons.