In America in the 60s, it was easy to believe that technology had solved the old problems of allocation of wealth between capital and labour once and for all. A

In America in the 60s, it was easy to believe that technology had solved the old problems of allocation of wealth between capital and labour once and for all. And maybe, in the long run, the techno-utopians are right. But we've still got a long way to go. In the early 20th century, new manufacturing technologies triggered a burst of investment in capital-intensive production lines. With so much capital lying around, workers had secured a pretty good deal for themselves by 1964. But now those jobs have fled to Asia, and it sucks to be an unskilled American. Most new jobs are in the service sector, and they can disappear in a heartbeat. Still, I'm not entirely pessimistic. Factory wages in China are rising...