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musicale10/12/20241 replyview on HN

Wage increases have been lagging productivity increases for about 60 years.[1]

For the past 35 years or so, automation seems to have driven wage inequality, and AI is headed down the same path.[2,3]

[1] https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

[2] https://news.mit.edu/2020/study-inks-automation-inequality-0...

[3] https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/19/1049378/ai-inequ...


Replies

CaptainFever10/12/2024

Note that the famous EPI graph in your first source appears to be controversial with mainstream economists: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/12kk79k/what_...

(However, there seems to be other sources that say the same thing, despite criticism of EPI's graph. So I'm not sure. It seems to be consensus that it has been stagnating or not keeping up with productivity for low skilled workers, though? But I can't find much about wage or compensation compared to productivity for high skilled workers [e.g. programmers, AI engineers]).

Furthermore, your comment focused on wages, where your parent comment specifically claimed that wages were less important than "how much work it takes to buy something similar, like steak, compared to the past". It misses the point.

Finally, I admit I haven't seen the latter two sources, but in my layman's opinion, inequality isn't necessarily bad if all needs are met.

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