Are You Ready for a Worse Dystopia than 1984 ?

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by EddieB.Good

You keep ignoring that greed has wiped out whatever income gains workers were supposed to be making. You pointed to increased productivity for the last few years. And yet we've seen hardly any wage growth for the last 40 years.

Let's not excuse the culprits of this by creating fantasies about how wages are paid.

The main reason why wages have not gained much in the last 40 years is because employers are giving workers more $$ in the form of increased benefits. There is a lot of literature on this subject - for example, the following:

Productivity and Compensation: Growing Together

[Freak80]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

This is a great example of what I'm talking about. Note to moderators: This is a federal government write-up and, thus, has no copyright.

What can labor productivity tell us about the U.S. economy?

Robots and AI will simply put this trend on steroids.

There’s no question that the pie is getting bigger. And it should continue to get bigger machines and automation get better.

But how is the pie being distributed? How much of it is going to the top 1% and how much of it is going to the bottom 99%? What is the trend over time? Is inequality rising or falling? Where will the mass of future unemployed going to get the bargaining power to get their hands on some of the pie?

[Joey2k]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

I just proved to you, in the post at the top of this page, that 1 worker these days is more than 5 times as productive as workers from 1947.

And are they getting paid 5x as much (in actual spending power)?

[Avondalist]

Originally Posted by Freak80

There’s no question that the pie is getting bigger. And it should continue to get bigger machines and automation get better.

But how is the pie being distributed? How much of it is going to the top 1% and how much of it is going to the bottom 99%? What is the trend over time? Is inequality rising or falling? Where will the mass of future unemployed going to get the bargaining power to get their hands on some of the pie?

If you don't work you don't get a slice. No pie for just sticking around.

What the hell is the point of feeding and housing billions of people who never work?

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by Joey2k

And are they getting paid 5x as much (in actual spending power)?

Did you read the link? It demonstrated that total compensation, including benefits, has been rising at about the same rate as productivity.