One hundred years ago, an American randomly plucked from a lineup of workers would as easily have been a farmer, as a factory worker, or a service-worker (say, a blacksmith). Today, there is an 80% chance that the random pluck would give you a service worker (likely a truck driver or a cashier, but also maybe a teacher, nurse, and slightly less probably, a lawyer or software developer).

The transition from farming and manufacturing to services explains so much about our world today—from growing inequality, to the soaring cost of education, to deepening political polarization.

I wrote about this today at sunderji.substack.com