Technology makes us dramatically more productive every decade, yet GDP growth has slowed from 4.5% in the 1960s to just 2.4% today. Despite computers costing 92% less since 2000 and streaming services offering endless entertainment for $15 monthly, the median American household feels squeezed rather than enriched. The gains from technological efficiency have vanished somewhere in the economy.

Consumer spending as a share of US GDP has plateaued around 68% since 2010, revealing a fundamental ceiling. You can only eat so much, watch one screen at a time, and live in one house. When Netflix replaced cable, households spent roughly the same amount on entertainment — just with different companies capturing the margin. Technology redistributes the existing economic pie rather than reliably growing it.

This redistribution explains where the productivity gains went: from workers to capital. The labor share of US GDP fell from 64% in 1980 to 58% today — a 6-percentage-point shift representing roughly $1.7 trillion annually that once flowed to workers but now flows to shareholders. Applied to 160 million employed Americans, that's about $10,500 per worker or $26,000 per household that disappeared from paychecks.