@keunwoo so, Baumol's cost disease means in relative terms things become more expensive, as other things cheapen. but in absolute terms, they do not. in absolute terms, we used to be able to afford human customer service. you can argue cheaper substitutes now "adequately" replace it, we've been made wealthy by better alternatives, but lots of us would dispute better or even adequate.

EDIT: I think I got this backwards, see the next post.

@keunwoo (is that quite right? low-productivity-improvement things have to be paid more in absolute terms in order to compete with higher productivity alternative uses. but that cost still renders them smaller relative to the pie enlarged from elsewhere-improved productivity. so i think i got this backwards! more expensive in absolute terms, but cheaper in relative terms. still seems like it should be affordable!)