The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level • Hacker News Board

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#231

Post by torginus » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

chasing wrote: post #195

By design, no?

Yes by design. Basically just by designating one part of the economy as non-productive consumption economy, and the other part as production economy, they create the justification for inflation - so that the government can have free money and take it from the stupid consumers by decreasing their wealth a little every year should they choose not to spend it, and give it (sorry, invest) to the nice productive entrepreneurial capitalist part of enconomy who will somehow reinvest it allegedly (read: mostly buy up shit the former half needs and sell it back to them at markup), the system has a direct wealth transfer mechanism that points from the poor to the rich, it couldn't be any more shameless and obvious if they tried.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#232

Post by scottyah » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

idiotsecant wrote: post #130

carlosjobim wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. The real estate share of income is probably at its highest among a lot of people who belong to the non-labouring class, but are far from ultra wealthy. But it's nice to have a scapegoat, isn't it?

If you belong to the 'non-laboring class' you are by definition the ultra wealthy. It's wild how much people are willing to slide goalposts to make themselves feel better.

It hurts the definition of the words when you use ultra wealthy to refer to the top 50%...

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#233

Post by autoexec » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #56

dlev_pika wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I guess the rest of the developed world doesn’t really ‘get it’ - fools!

they get subsidized by usa pharma industry. Their costs will rise if pharma prices are negotiated by govt here too.

That sounds good to me. Why should millions of Americans die every year because they can't afford their medications just so that other countries can get their meds at extremely low prices? Let's also have the US government negotiate our prices and let things even out across the board.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#234

Post by zer00eyz » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

stdgy wrote: post #168

zer00eyz wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> half of the US is living in abject poverty while quality of life for everyone is decreasing. The 350 million Americans looking at the top of the US economy and crying need to turn around and take a look at what's behind them. There are something like 7 billion people behind them, worse off.

"Listen folks, it's no big deal if you can't afford rent or to purchase a house. Ignore my vacation homes in Aspen, Jackson Hole and Nantucket. Just think about how much better you have it than the people in Haiti and get back to work!"

> purchase a house.

This is a functionaly unmovable number. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

> you can't afford rent

Because we as a society have drastically changed how we use housing: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/more-than-a-q... -- Multi generational housing was a thing. Having roommates was a thing... the premise of "golden girls" would be lost to a modern audience, because cohabitation is dead. The premise of "bosom buddies" would get canceled for its insensitivity, but no one would understand because boarding houses are all but gone.

Building every one in the world an American style house, would cripple the globe. Concrete, Sand, Copper, Wood are going to become massive problems long before we get close to getting the job done.

> Ignore my vacation homes in Aspen, Jackson Hole and Nantucket.

You think that vacation homes are causing the housing crisis? Are eroding wages elsewhere? The industry of these locations is TOURISM, and a fair bit of it is international. (Not Nantucket).

It's not like whaling is going to make a comeback to make Nantucket a viable place to live again.

> Just think about how much better you have it than the people in Haiti and get back to work!"

Plenty of Americans look at musk and say "lets eat the rich" ... the problem is that the rest of the world has those same hungry eyes for us.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#235

Post by logicchains » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

lesam wrote: post #173

ETH_start wrote: post #86

I wonder if labor itself will become an anachronism in the age of AI. Perhaps the future economic landscape will be dominated by capital because everyone will own capital. You will command a small army of agents to do whatever you want. You will no longer need to work for someone. You own small businesses far more than you could possibly operate in the pre-AI era and they will mostly operate autonomously with minimal…

Assuming your labour contribution to these agents is 'minimal': Why would you own them, instead of some well capitalized billionaire? To the extent that you do have capital, why do you assume that your 'minimal direction and guidance' would outcompete a full time specialist working for that billionaire?

It's basic economics; larger firms become progressively less efficient for the same reason that communist command economies are inefficient, because there's no internal price signals to guide resource allocation. So there's a natural cap on how big a firm can get (in information theoretic terms, there's a hard limit on the amount of information a centralized structure can process effectively).

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#236

Post by nekusar » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

Well yeah. This is why we're calling end-stage capitalism. What's coming looks like technofeudalism.

All companies are rent-seeking. Selling something is no longer a goal.

Prices go up up up up up.

Oligopolies and price fixing is normal.

Monopolies are normal with little/no controls.

People are getting paid a pittance to the work done.

Unions are their weakest in a century.

NLRB is basically frozen due to no quorum on the head board.

Companies routinely scam and lie at multiple places in hiring pipeline. FTC does nothing.

Neither party (Republicans or Democrats), save the DSA, fights for the American people.

Its all coming to a head, and baskets, and guillotines. Anybody who studies history knows what kind of powderkeg this situation is. Its also the reason the Ancient Romans made panem et circunses (bread and circus) cheap or free. You get riots and revolts otherwise.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#237

Post by shimman » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #185

taeric wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to go on a limb and say half of the US is not living in abject poverty? Nor can I get behind the idea that quality of life for folks is on the down trend.

Mississippi, the poorest state, has similar median income to Germany. I’m pretty sure 50% of the people there are not in abject poverty.

Okay and what exactly do you get for that income? What are the material outcomes for having a "higher" income than Germany? Because I know very few people that would openly choose to live in Mississippi versus Germany.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#238

Post by clates » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

GlickWick wrote: post #135

beckon69 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP. But respectfully disagree. Reads appropriate to me. "Related to or marked by Hysteria" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hysterical Hysteria being "behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess" which seems to be exactly what OP was trying to say.

The origin of the word is a bit darker than its meaning, unfortunately. It comes from the Greek word for Uterus. You can kinda fill in the blanks from there as to how it came to its modern meaning.

virtue signaling of the highest degree.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#239

Post by mc32 » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

atq2119 wrote: post #217

mc32 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mississippi, the poorest state, has similar median income to Germany. I’m pretty sure 50% of the people there are not in abject poverty.

This doesn't actually seem to be true based on a quick googling, i.e. Germany has somewhat higher median income. But in addition to the raw numbers, you have to keep in mind that they don't account for cost of living and that different countries account for various services differently, especially health care.

Totally understand that; but it counters the assertion of “abject poverty”. Perhaps relative poverty is a better descriptor but abject poverty is someone living in cardboard tents by the riverbank. Regular poor is living in section eight housing or subsidized housing. I don’t think we have 50% of Mississippians living in abject poverty.

Re: The labor share of income in the US is at its lowest post-war level

#240

Post by BJones12 » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #229

FloorEgg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for all the companies that issue shares and options as part of employee compensation.

None of those gives voting shares to employees.

Every share is a voting share. There are a small number of weird cases (e.g. Meta super-voting shares limited to Zuck), but your statement is broadly false.