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Re:Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Work Force in Two by AlexTWithBeard on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @08:23AM (#19085020)
Our productivity has indeed grown immensely, but, for good or for bad, instead of making things cheaper we're directing all our free resources to making them better.

Instead of cheaper cars we're making safer cars, instead of cheaper houses we're building bigger houses, and so on.

Re:Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Work Force in Two by Dumblydorr on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @08:31AM (#19085068)
A very large percentage of free resources are being hoarded in wealth and cash piles, would you actually claim a company like Apple is directing all of it's free resources to making better products? Why the stock buybacks and 200 billion pile?
Re:Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Work Force in Two by xamuel on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @10:04AM (#19085845)
It's a mistake to think of money as resources--as if money is something we dig out of the ground and need in order to make our machines run. No-one eats cash. Whatever could be done if Apple spent its cash, could be done if Apple didn't spend its cash. Money's only purpose is to incentivize people to do things, so you're basically asking Apple to play king and start directing society. I'd prefer they just sit on their money rather than that!
Re:Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Work Force in Two by graeme on Tuesday February 05, 2019 @09:44AM (#19085651)
That's capital. It gets given back to investors, who invest it elsewhere. They don't just stick it under the mattress. It is moved from Apple to a place where it can be put to use. With a buyback (or dividend) apple is saying "we ran out of productive ways to spend this money"
Re:Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Work Force in Two by nybble41 on Wednesday February 06, 2019 @05:52PM (#19100965)
Even if they did just keep a few billion dollars of physical cash in a vault somewhere, that would just increase the purchasing power of the remainder. The total value of all currency in circulation (all forms combined) tends toward the total value of all of the goods available for purchase.

Taking money out of circulation is a bit like making a loan to everyone in proportion to the amount of currency they hold; when you do decide to put it back into circulation, that increase in value (deflation) represents the interest you receive on the loan.