Tech creates wealth

That is the shocking, disappointing conclusion of a recent IMF report. It finds that “technological progress alone explains almost all of the increase in inequality from the early 1980s”. You see, technological advances raise the earning potential of those with skills. This disadvantages those who don`t have the skills. So income inequality rises as a result, and income inequality is a bad thing, so logic dictates that if you can`t get everyone to be equally highly skilled, everyone had better remain unskilled but equal. This absurdly Luddite conclusion proves, if any more proof was needed, that the notion of income inequality makes no sense whatsoever. The report notes that: “Per capita, incomes have risen across virtually all regions and countries for all segments of the population. As a result, the poor are better off in an absolute sense.”

But better off isn`t better off when those who are better off are even better off than you.