It&#x27;s not even that mysterious: Productivity gains haven&#x27;t been evenly distributed any more than income gains have been. Even discounting demographic changes like substantially increased rates of immigration, it&#x27;s statistically suspect to compare the median wage (typically of only non-supervisory workers) or living standard with the sum total productivity of the economy.<p><i>The
disparity in income growth rates across households can be related in part
to productivity. Changes in technology do not have an equal impact on
all workers in the economy. Over the past 30 years, improvements in
technology, such as computer innovations, have led to increases in labor
productivity for workers with technical skills ... These high-skilled workers experienced greater
increases in compensation than lower-skilled workers.</i><p>...<p><i>For a select group of “economic superstars,” technological innovations
have expanded the size of audiences, leading to strong increases
in income ... The rapidly growing demand for video games has
resulted in similar income growth in a narrow segment of the software
industry. In the late 1990s, creators of video game software experienced
average annual income growth rates estimated to be 6 percentage points
higher than workers creating non-entertainment software products, such
as for computer databases.</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kansascityfed.org&#x2F;publicat&#x2F;econrev&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;1q07will.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kansascityfed.org&#x2F;publicat&#x2F;econrev&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;1q07will....</a><p>The whole paper is well worth perusing. You&#x27;ll be surprised how much of the total income gain in the U.S. is attributable to movie stars and pro athletes, and that is nearly entirely (economically speaking) a result of their exceptional &quot;productivity&quot;. That is, being one of only a thousand or so people capable of producing something people will collectively pay billions for.