alt Hacker News>In a reasonable society, most individuals' earnings should go up all the time.
I don't think this is a reasonable expectation at all. In the absence of economic growth I would expect the average individual's earnings to be flat.
The only way for wages to go up across the board is if productivity increases. If you're not creating more wealth than last year, the only way for one person's wages to go up is if someone else's goes down.
Replies
harimau777 • today at 4:07 AM
Isn't that the core issue? Productivity isn't being shared with the workers who actually produce it.
fwip • today at 3:23 AM
I read it as 3% retire, 3% enter the workforce, and everyone else is slightly better / more senior than the year before. So the average wage could be flat.
Assume you have no overall economic growth, but workers get more productive over their lifetime (as they accumulate experience).
In that scenario, each individual worker sees increases over their lifetime, even though the average stays flat.