I don't think it makes much of a difference whether it's IT or any other segment of economy that generates the most increase in inequality. Creating and/or maintaining some level of equality is always an uphill battle on ever changing ground and there are enough “capitalism hackers” who know how to leverage “the system”, the market, influence, etc to make that battle harder.
IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
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Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#42Here's another possibility: The highly increased value of intellectual property that comes from IT has made transfer pricing a much more efficient means of tax avoidance for companies, who are free to move almost all their profits to the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. Expecting our tax authorities to judge whether a trade between two subsidiaries of a multinational is at 'fair market value' makes sense if they'…
The authors of the paper identify a trend of "growth that began in the 1970's", and say that correlates with the emergence of IT firms being able to erect barriers to competition. It might be coincidence, but the late 1970s is also when:
1. The US Copyright Act of 1976 extended copyright from a fixed term of 28 years (with opt-in 28 year extension) to the life of the author plus 70 years.
2. The Patent Cooperation Treaty became active in 1978, making it much easier to obtain patents in multiple countries.
It would seem that IP was strengthened (both as a method of avoiding tax and suppressing competition) in the late 1970s. The deregulation of the banking industry which happened in the early 1980s seems like it would have helped also.
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Serious question: who says it "makes everyone better off"? Fancy new technology is not of much comfort to people who back in the day could buy a house and send their kids to college with a single blue collar income-earner and now can hardly find a job (and can't even dream of sending their kids to college with their puny earnings). > if technology makes everyone better off but increases inequality, is that a bad outc…
If you can't keep up, that's not other people's fault for being better than you.
That statement should apply perhaps to companies, not people.
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#44> The low labor share in the 1980's is then out of line with the rest of our results. However, it is compatible with the fact that wage growth and labor share started to fall early in the 1970's, caused by factors not present in our study. Political factors such as laws to weaken unions, automation, outsourcing, and globalization were operative even before the rise of monopoly power in the 1980's. Hence, by the time…
IT codes knowledge and techniques into machines and by that makes workers with low and medium skill levels more exchangeable reducing their negotiation power vs. the capital providers. Over time this leads to salaries lagging for this part of the working population. Unions may slow this process but their negotiation power is slowly eroding too. These days it is not unheard of that whole factories are shifting across borders.
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can't keep up, that's not other people's fault for being better than you.
The severely disabled, we should provide zero social supports for them and their families so? It's nobody's fault that they're garbage people. Luck of the lottery.
>The severely disabled, we should provide zero social supports for them and their families so?
If "we" want to provide support to any group, it can be done through charity. I'd argue this way is more moral: it's more of a good deed to be generous with one's own money than with other peoples', and it's not much of a good deed to give money if one's only doing so due to threat of imprisonment for failing to comply.
There's also research suggesting that charitable behaviour makes the givers happier too: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/10-012.pdf.
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#46Serious question: if technology makes everyone better off but increases inequality, is that a bad outcome? Why or why not?
Social mobility. If access to education and management positions are primarily a function of how much money your parents had then over time a ruling class with money but little clue will emerge. It will be all downhill for everyone from then...
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#47Noah Chomsky says technology is neutral: it can be used to empower companies, automate jobs away (as it's the case right now). It also could be used to empower employees (into super craftsmen??) but so far this direction isn't pursued.
That appears to be the case here:
https://qz.com/962427/what-its-like-to-be-a-modern-engraver-...
If you think about it, wouldn't more advanced technology lead to higher consumption until everybody has literally everything that they could possibly want?
Technology is more of a scapegoat for rising inequality than a proximate cause.
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#48I really thought it was corrupt politicians giving away public resources to private mega corporations, irresponsible financing systems, wall street selling lel bonds, the undermining of the national working class, bogus copyright laws that are designed to squish small and upcoming competition, and people purchasing garbage degrees instead of useful ones with money they don't have guaranteeing they'll be indebted for…
Yes. I work in IT and I'm rich, aren't you rich like the rest on engineers that read Hacker News?
Not like the poor people at finance institutions, they create so much value and get so few in return...
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#49[deleted]
Re: IT is the cause of rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s [pdf]
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
You ought to familiarize yourself with the social contract. Rich people do not create their wealth in a vacuum. Everybody contributes to the creation of an environment whereby wealth creation is possible. This includes everything from basic utilities, infrastructure (roads & rail), health and safety, education, food security, military etc. If you want to try your hand at creating wealth without "forcing" others to pr…
Are you suggesting that rich people use those utilities like education or infrastructure for free? Because I'm pretty sure that they already pay for them, in taxes or otherwise. And of course their companies also PROVIDE some of the services you mentioned.
Are you suggesting that rich people use those utilities like education or infrastructure for free?
They don't start out rich. So, maybe some rich people inherit their wealth, but go back enough generations and everybody had to start non-rich.
It's not just that, though. Rich people don't live in a vacuum with their wealth. They interact with the economy. They employ people, they contract for services, they trade with people. All of the people they interact with need to be fed, clothed, educated, etc. However, thanks to the power of economic growth, they still get more out of society than they pay in taxes.