We can only imagine the productivity gains when autonomous car will arrive. But this will also keep fueling the increase in inequality in our societies.

I have been mulling this theory for quite a while to try to explain which measured productivity has been so muted in the recovery. Besides the rise in cost of health care, I think the main driver is the inappropriate use of smart phones in the work environment. But it is not that simple. Because on the other hand the use of smartphones has allowed a lot of professionals to work (answer emails) at any time of the day and night when it was convenient for them while increasing the amount of quality time outside of work. The core issue is that lower qualified jobs do not need smartphones and thus smartphones only lowers their productivity. So basically you end up with lower classes working less because they snoop on their phones while higher classes do the same but also do some work at times they were not before (I know I do). This creates even more inequality in our society and the sad part is that except for banning smartphones for lower qualified jobs, there is no solution.

As I am not a published economist, feel free to play with this idea smiley