[stouset]

Food has gotten progressively cheaper. At the same time, both the compensation demand for farm labor have plummeted.

Demand for the output of knowledge work can increase while demand for those who produce it falls. “Knowledge work” is not a product with inherent demand, just like you and I don’t go to the store to buy farm labor.

[Schiendelman]

I'm not sure I agree with the premise of that analogy. Demand for farm labor has increased, but more of it is done by machines. The number of people employed in agriculture has increased if you include agriculture technology, over the same period. Not that I'm not saying the proportion of all humans working in agriculture has increased, I'm saying the raw number has, which is what matters to people along their lifetime.

Also, both the pay rates for agricultural labor and the pay for developing agricultural machinery are much higher than the pay for agricultural labor was in the past.

Knowledge work is an ever expanding umbrella, just as agricultural work is.