Greenspan Sees Eventual Close of Gap in Workers’ Incomes

The increased importance of technology in the workplace has resulted in a greater gap in workers’ incomes, which has left Americans with a gloomy view of their economic future, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday.

But the nation’s central bank chief said the rapid technological change that created the gap would eventually close it, by making less-skilled workers more productive.

“All such changes in the structure of the economy naturally create frictions and human stress, at least temporarily,” he said. “But the optimism that has characterized Americans through the generations will again become predominant.”

Greenspan avoided any discussion of interest rates or the stock market’s recent gyrations in his address to the annual conference of the six-state San Francisco Federal Reserve district.

Instead, he gave a long-range and generally upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy--but said polling data shows the public doesn’t share his optimism.

“There seemingly inexplicably remains an extraordinarily deep-rooted foreboding” about the future, Greenspan said. “Half those polled expect the next generation will face lower living standards.”

The basis for the gloomy outlook appears to be the income gap between rich and poor, which has widened in the last 20 years after narrowing for several decades before that, he said.

The growing role of information and computers has put a premium on education, widening the gap between those with more schooling and those with less. But the same technology should eventually produce more equality, he said.