The hourglass economy

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I think that just about everybody had read articles in the media about the decline of middle class in the west resulting in what is colloquially known as an hourglass economy where the majority of the population are either very wealthy or very poor. Is this likely to affect people with AS more than NT people?

I find articles to be confusing and conflate different issues. Manufacturing is often mentioned but in Britain it is considered to be a blue collar working class occupation rather than a middle class occupation. Are middle class jobs being lost because of changes in technology or is offshoring jobs the biggest culprit?

As far as I'm concerned, it is both factor that is causing this hourglass economy.

I'd consider most first-world factory workers (and many in the third world as well) to be both blue-collar and middle-class. Someone working for twice the minimum wage or more, even if they get only minimal benefits could qualify as middle-class.

Even the manufacturing economy seems to be moving that way, though. You have, on the one hand, vast sweatshops full of people sewing our clothing for a few dollars a day, and on the other hand billion dollar factories which make the yarn and thread employing a few educated, technically skilled people for much better wages.

Its only a tiny, tiny minority of the population who are really wealthy.
The world's millionaires wouldn't even fill a small city (~1 million people), and the billionaires would fit in a large lecture hall / theatre / convention centre (~ 1500 people). In more poor/developing countries, you get the pyramid,
In rich countries, you get a hybrid pyramid/barrel.
(see this example from my own country http://taxreview.treasury.gov.au/conten ... erA-40.gif )
It is a breakdown of wealth by 10% segments of the population.
About 40% of the population are relatively poor(<0.5 of the average), 40% would be middle class (0.5 to 1.5 times average), and 10% are off-the-charts(almost 4.5 + times the average)

The reason for a perceived 'hourglass' is an imbalance in media reporting - we currently hear a lot more about the rich people and the nouveau poor. If anything, distribution of wealth in developed countries was a barrel shape, and appears to be moving toward a pyramid with a very pointy 'top'.

IMO. Technology is neutral in this shift. The main reason for the loss of middle-class jobs is that most of the gains in productivity, and inflated 'benefits' from the oversupply of labour are being re-invested into non-productive capital. This mostly takes the form of institutionalised exclusion from what was previously common property (e.g. the conversion of public spaces into private/semi-private property), and speculation (gambling on the future value of pieces of paper).

There has also been a recent change in the operation of most 'first-world' governments, where far more support is provided to the richest segment of the population for a much lower cost (i.e. taxes), while much less is provided to the population at large.