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I think a big reason the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer (RELATIVELY! Bear in mind a poor person now is way better off than one in 1975) and the middle class is shrinking is because people are becoming relatively less useful. Everything is being automated, the internet is so pervasive that a lot of information is out there easily obtainable while previously you'd need people (like sales people, research staff etc) to get or distribute it. Many back office support roles are being automated and this trend will continue. In the future even cars won't require drivers anymore (There go the cab and public transport drivers), cleaning will be fully automated (roomba++) and so forth. The only thing that's going to help you earn a very good income is to either be more than two std dev above the mean in anything that's useful (intelligence, maybe athletics etc) or capital, because capital is always useful. The bottom line is the demand for mediocrity (i.e. most people) is plummeting fast because it can now be replaced by cheaper execution. Also this doesn't mean people without a very good income are going to have to live in shoeboxes. The world is so rich now that even the useless can have a comfortable lifestyle.