Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds

[Johnny2X2X]

13. It's the lack of wage growth to follow gains in productivity

Quantitative easing (printing money) didn't realy cause this.

Basically, labor created wealth at an exponential rate for 40 years, but the labor didn't share in those wealth gains. An hour of labor in the auto industry in the 1980s maybe produced $150 of value and the laborer got $30 an hour plus $25 an hour in benefits, so he kept $55 of the $150 his labor created in value. Today, an hour of labor in the auto undustry maybe produces $500 of value and that auto worker is keeping the same $55 an hour for himself (if he's lucky). That other $350 an hour went to executives and shareholders. Numbers just a generalization to illustrate the point. And some of this increased productivity is automation for sure, labor didn't get a piece of it at all.

Basically, we've gotten better and mopre efficient in everything we do and in everything we make, those gains made the top 1% into kings while the bottom 60% struggled.