Myth 24: Technology Is Wiping Out the Middle Class

Abstract

We constantly hear that the American middle class is shrinking, and that technology, particularly automation, is to blame. When this is the prevailing narrative, generating support for robust technology-based productivity becomes much more difficult. The reality is that the share of Americans in the middle class has declined, but mostly because of the expansion of the upper-middle class, the movement of manufacturing jobs offshore, increases in low-skilled immigration, and the rise of single-adult households, not automation.