People frequently focus on increasing wages but the really important thing to remember is quality of life. With increasing productivity should come lower cost

People frequently focus on increasing wages but the really important thing to remember is quality of life. With increasing productivity should come lower cost for the same goods (adjusted for inflation). The New Yorker is based in New York City where I live. Both renting apartments and purchasing housing has increased in cost significantly because of an artificially induced housing shortage through zoning laws meant to favor wealthy landlords over those who rent or want to purchase an apartment/coop. (this is called by economists, economic rent) There are many, many laws like the zoning laws in NYC that cause economic rent that favor certain groups over others. Another example in New York City are Taxi Medallions which limit the number of taxis and making them less affordable for passengers. Instead of focusing on wage increases which might be limited by globalization, we should look for all of the economic rents and removing them through legislation thus allowing markets to do their job.