[m__]

Of course it's the new technology that causes this and not economists running monetary experiments, that keeps wages stagnant. (who would expect the purchasing power of money to drop when increasing the money supply!?)

For the past thousands of years we've seen incredible productivity gains thanks to technology (the wheel, the loom, the steam engine!), and purchasing power always kept increasing across the population.

On the other hand, we've been running this kind of monetary intervention for a very short while, at an accelerating pace, but no way this is causing an increasing pay disparity.

This time it must be the AI.

[cm2187]

I think globalisation (as in outsourcing to cheaper countries) had a major role. It put out of a job low skilled workers in the US, and made (part) of the cost of living much cheaper to those with a job (all the stuff imported from China).

Money printing and the over accumulation of debt I think had less of an effect. It had inflationary effects on upper middle class activities (housing in big cities, college tuitions, etc), but I believe the bulk of the effects is yet to come: a period of high inflation that can have severe effects on our way of life.

AI's doom day scenario needs to take a ticket and wait in the queue...