Originally Posted by
mfckrz
Basic supply&demand??
Increasing labor supply without a commensurate increase in economic output means no wage growth.
No wage growth + rising costs of living → less savings. And no more middle class. Less savings → less investment, ergo ↓ economic growth.
Consider that there'd have never been a Renaissance without the Black Death. Because rising wages in the aftermath of the plague allowed for the emergence of a middle class and greatly disrupted the wealthy feudal hierarchies who'd been riding high on a mass of cheap labor prior.
With socioeconomic mobility from large numbers of people who can actually save, invest, and own assets… culture tends to follow. Same dynamics can be observed in civilizations of antiquity.