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However, just as housing price growth decoupled from wage growth in recent decades, new research shows that real wages have not kept up with productivity growth.

So, who is getting the benefit?

Firstly, it’s important to understand productivity. Productivity is getting more output from the same number of inputs, or the same output from a reduced number of inputs. For example, if workers are producing thingamajigs a new innovative way and now make more thingamajigs with the same hours of work, then productivity goes up.

This increase in thingamajigs is sold, and then that the extra money made is then supposed to flow to workers in higher living standards. Productivity has been described as “the engine of living standards”, and the Productivity Commission says the more productive the economy is, the more workers are supposed to enjoy either higher wages, lower prices, or by working less and having more free time.

The Productivity Commission claims that outside of mining and agriculture, productivity has been flowing to higher real wages. But there is new evidence that the Productivity Commission is wrong.

The most consequential domestic policy development of the 2020s is neither COVID-19 nor Donald Trump’s reelection. It is Joe Biden’s decision to import ten million foreigners into the United States in violation of standing federal law. Many of the defining political fights of this decade stem from that choice: government shutdowns over border enforcement, states unilaterally redefining the meaning of citizenship, the growing willingness of the restrictionist wing of the Republican Party to defy its own business class, major fraud investigations in Minneapolis and New York, and the unraveling of consensus over whether federal law binds the states.

These are battles in a larger fight over who constitutes the American people, one that escalated with President Biden’s decision to actively facilitate the mass importation of illegal aliens into this country by land, air, and sea.

American politics is no longer primarily a contest over how we govern ourselves. It is a contest over who we are and who decides.

None of this is merely rhetorical. The federal government has shut down six times since 2018—and immigration has been central to nearly every one of them. The government shut down over border wall funding in 2018 and benefits for “Dreamers” in 2019. Two partial shutdowns concerning immigration enforcement occurred in 2026, the second shutdown being the longest in American history at 76 days.

Hello friends:

Long time since I've posted here at Heidi Says. Have no fear, it isn't because I've stopped saying things. I'm super busy speaking at Land of Action, the initiative I founded to boost, reinforce, and assist grassroots progressive organizations across New Mexico. Read the Land of Action mission statement to learn more.

As we move into the heart of the general election season, it is imperative that we live a commitment to democracy. That means turning out massive numbers of people to the polls, making sure everybody eligible is able to vote, and doing all we can to keep the elections free and fair. Land of Action (LoA) is leaning heavily into this work. We've got three efforts going.

Johann Kurtz’s essay on why younger generations feel left behind economically, even while official statistics from GDP to stock markets send signals that our economy is thriving, touched a nerve. 

Kurtz’s central argument is that young people only appear to be doing fine in official statistics because those measures fail to capture the collapse of “social capital”—the free inheritance of trusted neighbors, functional public schools, safe streets, and marriageable norms that previous generations received at no cost. Because that commons has been liquidated and privatized, young people must now repurchase its components individually at market prices. Expensive homes in good districts, private schooling, daycare, credentials, and more—all of it requires substantial financial resources, even as incomes have risen only modestly. Meanwhile, the cost of these essentials has increased many times over. 

The result is a measurement failure: cheap electronics and rising nominal incomes make the young look prosperous, but the actual building blocks of a middle-class life have moved beyond the reach of average Americans, which explains why younger generations are delaying or forgoing them entirely.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

On this episode of Dollars & Sense, Greg returns! He and Elinor discuss the ALP National Conference in Adelaide, the economic impact of the ongoing American war on Iran, and the failures of Australia’s privatised employment services system.

This discussion was recorded on Wednesday 22 July 2026.

Pre-order More Fool Me: How the gas industry tricked Australia by Richard Denniss, the latest Vantage Point essay from Australia Institute Press. Use the code ‘FOOLME’ on a four-edition Vantage Point subscription to receive a free copy of Richard’s book, Econobabble.

Host: Greg Jericho, Chief Economist, the Australia Institute // @grogsgamut

Host: Elinor Johnston-Leek, Senior Content Producer, the Australia Institute // @elinorjohnstonleek

Show notes:

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Juan Hanes is a research fellow at Notes on the Crises and a Journalism student at NYU. Find him on Bluesky here.

With the release of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, mankind’s foremost moral authority—a Chicago-born priest and the absolute monarch of the longest-running institution in history—addressed a technology so advanced that even its creators struggle to comprehend it.

One of those creators appeared alongside the Holy Father: Chris Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, the leading AI model provider and a company publicly feuding with the government of the pope’s home country over battlefield use of its algorithms.

The remarks of both men were scrutinized the world over by public officials, executives, theologians, technologists, believers, and non-believers alike. The consequences of their attention remain to be seen. For now, as historian T.R. Fehrenbach said of the Korean War, the lesson of Magnifica Humanitas’s unprecedented release is that it happened.

The lessons of the document itself, however, are harder to summarize.

A Servant, Not a Master

The American Mind’s ‘Editorial Roundtable’ podcast is a weekly conversation with Ryan Williams, Spencer Klavan, and Mike Sabo devoted to uncovering the ideas and principles that drive American political life. Stream here or download from your favorite podcast host.

Trump Reopens the Trade War | The Roundtable Ep. 327

President Trump this week has announced a set of 50 percent tariffs on various Canadian goods, with a 30-day window to negotiate before they are imposed. In retaliation against Canada’s quotas on American cars and alcohol, Trump proposes to levy tariffs on wine, hockey sticks, and cement. But does it serve America and the Right ahead of midterms? Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearings, following the dismissal of Pam Bondi, give a snapshot of the Right’s shifting composition ahead of midterms. Plus: Lindsey Graham, RIP.

It would also bring down domestic gas prices for Australian households and businesses.

The Australian Labor Party will reportedly include a new tax regime for the gas export industry in its party platform today at the ALP National Conference in Adelaide.

According to the Nobel Prize winning economist, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, it is a ‘no brainer’ for Australia to tax its gas exports.

“It is great news that the Labor Party seems on the verge of adopting this simple policy which will be good for the Australian economy,” said Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute.

“It will help restore faith in Australia’s democracy among the growing number of Australians who think their governments are no longer willing to stand up to foreign companies.

“Apart from having huge volumes of gas, Australia has a huge opportunity to finally introduce a gas policy which benefits all Australians.

“When Labor was re-elected last year, the Prime Minister spoke about ‘progressive patriotism’, with policies that do things ‘the Australian way’.

“He now has an opportunity to put those words into action, with a policy that would be hugely popular and benefit millions of Australians.

“Tax policy doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. In fact, the more complicated it is, the more it can be exploited.