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Comment by maerF0x0 | Hacker News Reader

In the 1930s many homes only had icebox "refrigerators" that worked by putting Ice in the top to cool whatever was below.

IMO productivity has been absorbed by getting more for your money in hidden inflation . Eg: today when you buy a phone (and internet access) you get a free encyclopedia (wikipedia), movie theater (youtube), camera, Video recorder, note pad and pen (app), alarm clock, calendar, ... get my drift?

Same with a "home" which is now far more advanced and sq ft per person.

That's where all the productivity gains have gone, the basics of today are more complex than the "complex" things of the past

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The fridge of today is cheaper than ice deliveries.

A phone is amazing for what it is, but you can't just pile on more features and use that as an excuse for lower pay. Phones don't cost a budget-breaking amount.

Home size makes sense as an increased cost, but most of the reasons that make it hard to afford living space are really bad reasons.

Quarter after quarter companies are posting record profits. You aren't getting anything for free. You paid for all of that in one way or another. Wikipedia you might not have, its kept alive by donations. The others are paid for by either sitting through ads or having your data harvested and sold. Just because you aren't handing over money doesn't mean there is no cost associated with it.

This is a terrible argument that try's to gloss over the actual problem. Wages have been stagnant for decades while inflation is still a thing. The middle class is dying and its not because they have bigger homes and better tech. Corporate America is strangling the middle class then cries for bailouts when they hit even the tiniest speed bump(and gets it without much issue). While helping the average American becomes a massive issue.

Both my parents were raised in houses that were largely built by their parents. They both have memories of using oil lamps and outhouses for a while due to no electricity and no indoor plumbing while that building was taking place. And the final homes were tiny by modern standards.

That was 1940s and 1950s. I’m often amused by the “manual labor used to pay well enough to buy a house” argument since the houses available at the time were much different than those available now.

All the replies are missing my basic point. Everything built today is far more complex than what was built before. If a car is twice as hard to make then I can be twice as productive, but still only produce 1 car (with twice as many features, say).

Or I can make a single phone, but with N times as many features.

The productivity gain has been absorbed by complexity in the things we produce.

Those aren't economically relevant productivity gains. You're basically required to have a phone to participate in society, that's more of a monthly tax unless you use it to generate income. Same with housing, it costs much more than the minor changes that have been made in design saves per month.

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