Well, that and the incredible divide between people who have assets that kick off income, whether rent, dividends, interest or realized capital gains, and those who don't.
From SciTecDaily, January 14:
A newly published paper quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices.
Recent data suggests that the majority of the increase in the wage gap since 1980 can be attributed to automation replacing less-educated workers.
When using self-checkout machines in supermarkets and drugstores, it is unlikely that you are bagging your purchases as efficiently as checkout clerks used to. The main advantage of automation for large retail chains is that it reduces the cost of bagging.
“If you introduce self-checkout kiosks, it’s not going to change productivity all that much,” says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. However, in terms of lost wages for employees, he adds, “It’s going to have fairly large distributional effects, especially for low-skill service workers. It’s a labor-shifting device, rather than a productivity-increasing device.”
A newly published study co-authored by Acemoglu quantifies the extent to which automation has contributed to income inequality in the U.S., simply by replacing workers with technology — whether self-checkout machines, call-center systems, assembly-line technology, or other devices. Over the last four decades, the income gap between more- and less-educated workers has grown significantly; the study finds that automation accounts for more than half of that increase.
“This single one variable … explains 50 to 70 percent of the changes or variation between group inequality from 1980 to about 2016,” Acemoglu says....
....MUCH MORE
