> And then we come to the other elephant in the room: why are real wages flat?
A lot of it is because workers are doing less. They may be working just as hard, or maybe even harder. They are doing tasks that enable more production. But they are doing less. And many fewer people are required to do it.
More people do the last mile of work that can’t be automated, requiring 0 skill, and little thought. Low end jobs still used to require a fair bit of expertise, but are now dead ends.
Performance in many of these jobs is upper bounded at just showing up and doing it. It’s not even a rat race.
A lot of it is because workers are doing less. They may be working just as hard, or maybe even harder. They are doing tasks that enable more production. But they are doing less. And many fewer people are required to do it.
More people do the last mile of work that can’t be automated, requiring 0 skill, and little thought. Low end jobs still used to require a fair bit of expertise, but are now dead ends.
Performance in many of these jobs is upper bounded at just showing up and doing it. It’s not even a rat race.
tl;dr low skill labor supply outstrips low skill labor demand.