Baumol’s cost disease doesn’t make sense to me here (which I don’t quite get anyway, it just seems like as the supply of labor relative to demand gets smaller, the price of labor rises).
What makes more sense to me is that people are earning less (in real terms), and/or have less income security due to cheaper labor from abroad and productivity improvements from automation all flowing to owners. If people’s wages did increase, they could also be allocating less of their money for leisure purposes, opting instead to prepare themselves for healthcare expense or income instability, or saving for education so their kids can competes. Either way, it’s a reduction in funds available for leisure.
