In the 19th century economists portrayed business as a perpetual struggle between capital and labour. So far in the 21st century labour has been losing this battle in the west – on the lower rungs, anyway. As China and India have embraced capitalism, so wages of blue-collar workers in the developed world have stagnated.

Meanwhile corporate profits as a proportion of gross domestic product have soared to historic highs, thanks to the outsourcing of production and technological advances that eliminate the need for many personnel. But there are plenty of parts of the economy where this trend does not apply.