I’ve got Turchin in my book pile for next year so can’t yet comment on that theory specifically, but I’ve posted about similar before: nostr:note14hd2z48knluwy5t77ff6zkkf6fw4zrk3h06g4v2ttgakk67hqrusuv56eg

And whilst you’re right about wages not being a great proxy for productive value to society, it being heavily skewed by financialisation (all the best minds go to Hedge Funds instead of working as engineers) and regulation (McKinsey et al creating industry around Gov policy), that wasn’t my point.

My point was that if you want productivity to grow then you want the one earning $300k to have more of that pie available so they can go and be entrepreneurial.

Most people think of people like Zuck starting FB out of a dorm when they think of entrepreneurs - they think young guys with little behind them. In reality most entrepreneurs are 30-40 who have accumulated enough wealth, experience and knowledge that they can branch out on their own to start something with their capital.

Taking half their shit away from them every year makes it less and less viable for these people to flip from employee to entrepreneur because they can’t accumulate the capital needed to start, they’re stuck living comfortable upper middle class lives as wagies but can’t take that next step which would actually be much more beneficial to broader society.