My opinion is that technology does not cause income inequality. That the divide between the super rich and the rest of us, is just greed. The divide can be smashed with proper tax laws and enforcement. Now there is a study out that shows this to be true. The paper can be found here.
Angry Bear blog has a post about the paper: http://angrybearblog.com/...
They are commenting on the post by David Cay Johnston: http://www.nationalmemo.com/...
Saez has shown that in the two years of recovery for which we have data, 2009 to 2011, 121 percent of the income gains went to the top 1 percent. That means the 99 percent saw its share of the national income pie sliced more thinly.
These gains were so highly concentrated that 40 percent of all the increased income in our nation of 314 million went to fewer than 16,000 households.
On the rise of CEO and other executive pay, while that of most workers is flat to falling, the authors find that “tax cuts may have led managerial energies to be diverted to increasing their remuneration at the expense of enterprise growth and employment.”
Basically, inequality rose because there were not protections or adequate tax law to prevent it from happening. CEO's lined their pockets because they could and because of the tax cuts (tax law), they could shovel much of it away without getting taxed at all.
Which leads me back to my opinion, that if you don't regulate us, we will be bad. Very bad. Humans can be very greedy, heartless and myopic when it comes to money.