Sure, everybody knows inflation devalues money over time, but in the past the next generation had a better standard of living than his or her father.  A new worker starting out in 1970 was better off than the one in 1920, the one starting out in 2020 was worse off than the one in 1970.

Absolutely, the transition to a service economy which accompanied the offshoring of factory work significantly lowered the average wage, particularly since most service jobs are low skill and not unionized.  The actual value of physical labor has been steadily diminishing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and mechanization.  Machines powered by coal or oil were able to do work which previously took 100s or 1000s of homo saps to do.  "22 Billion Energy Slaves" as Jason Heppenstall titled his blog back in the day.

With the advent of AI, many jobs in the white collar world of paper pushers will be taken over by machines, devaluing that form of labor also.  Whether it's a lawyer researching case law or a doctor making a diagnosis, AI will do it faster, more accurately and more comprehensively than a homo sap.  Robots can take over jobs which require both physical actions and decision making capability.  Not really a whole lot left for a meat package to do to earn his daily bread.

In light of this inexorable move, in the event the civilization manages to progress into the techno-futurist world, society will need to devise another means of distributing the wealth than paying for labor, be it physical or intellectual.  Due to its high level of complexity and vast energy demands, I don't  see this techno future as likely, but if it does come to pass it will require a radical change in economics.  That really has not been addressed effectively by techno futurist theoreticians.

RE