# Increased Economic Productivity Could Be the Cause of Increased Class Segregation Due to the development of IT and computer science in the last two decades our economic productivity has increased, yet the amount of time we spend working has not changed (and in some places, like in Germany according to Francisco, it has even increased). This **increase in economic productivity and thus increase in economic output could have disproportionally benefited the business owners who get more output from their workers, unless the workers are paid proportionally more. If it exists, this disproportionate benefit could be a cause of increased class segregation, unhappy workers and thus populism.** Although the wide consensus is that the human condition has generally improved (see [[Why Things Have Never Been Better]]), the question at hand is more economic: **==has wage growth proportionally followed the growth in economic output?==** Is the workforce collectively rebelling against this by decreasing productivity, and in that case would the solution be to decrease the amount of time people spend at work? See [[Microsoft Japan Tested a Four-Day Work Week and Productivity Jumped by 40%]].