Then everything changed. Real wages stopped rising, as US capitalists redirected their investments to produce and employ abroad, while replacing millions of workers in the US with computers. The US women's liberation moved millions of US adult women to seek paid employment. US capitalism no longer faced a shortage of labour.
Wolff also points to that. In the span of a decade the world's labor market effectively increased by 1/3 with that third having one of the cheapest costs of living in the world. There's no way that can't have a depressive effect on wage growth.
I don't think there's a single cause. But Ronald Reagan has to be seen as playing an outsize role in many graphs like this one. He was first elected in 1981. (And Thatcher became PM in 1979.)
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From Richard Big Dick Wolff:
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Wolff also points to that. In the span of a decade the world's labor market effectively increased by 1/3 with that third having one of the cheapest costs of living in the world. There's no way that can't have a depressive effect on wage growth.
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Could be, but the actual inflection point shown in the original graph (and still present in the gray text in the meme above) is 1973.
Plus the ongoing war on unions, the fall of the soviet union, nafta and whatnot...
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I don't think there's a single cause. But Ronald Reagan has to be seen as playing an outsize role in many graphs like this one. He was first elected in 1981. (And Thatcher became PM in 1979.)
Capitalist greed and deregulation.