Well. That was ugly
I have just witnessed the first thread at Brad Delong's joint in which he got not a single agreement in the comments.
What I think he meant was, if wages change and the GNP (and by extension all economic factors except wages) remains the same, then total wages has also remained the same, so mathematical necessity means wage change on the high salary range was offset by wage changes on the low end of the scale. What he said was:
…and the crowd said, "Yes. A snowball's chance in…"But--holding real GDP constant--a decline in the wages of high-skill workers is a rise in the wages of low-skill workers (and a rise in profits). Isn't there a chance that the yuppies facing competition from Bangalore will be a highly positive development, pushing U.S. wage levels together and raising the real wages of those at the bottom?
