[lsc]

> The continued gains in productivity we have seen since that time have come by way of mechanization/automation.

but that has been true since the first chimp figured out how to shove a stick into an anthill and get more tasty bugs than just picking off the ants on the surface. We use tools, better tools are how productivity advances.

Yes, yes, we have better tools than ever before, to the point where they don't look like tools. We can build a machine to do a thing and then leave, and only come back and tinker with it when it breaks.

Some time in the previous century basically everything switched over to assembly-line type production, where nobody built the whole widget themselves. the current switchover is to, uh, I guess you would call them robots. Tools that do the thing with one time input to guide them (and, of course, lots of ongoing maintenance)

But make no mistake, these "robots" we have are still just tools; tools that give massive leverage to the labor that programs those robots and that maintains those robots.

[lsc]

I think a lot of it is politics and labor leverage and education. after the new deal and the second world war and the GI bill, a lot of our workers had free education. We had a serious safety net for the time and a very progressive tax system with very high top marginal rates to pay for it. and lots of unions. All things that give workers more negotiation power.