Why Wages Aren’t Growing
Wages aren't growing because people aren't worth more. Most job growth is in low-skill jobs.For wages to grow, people have to be paid more than they're worth as an economic unit. That's what unions are about. "More", as Samuel Gompers would answer when asked what he wanted.This was a well understood concept in the 1950s, and was accepted by both management and labor in the major US manufacturing industries. The UAW - auto company contracts of that era explicitly tied wages to increased manufacturing productivity. It still is somewhat accepted in Germany, but is dead in the US.Part of what killed wage growth was the demise of Communism.  Communism was once a serious ideological threat to capitalism. From the 1920s to the early 1980s, there was real fear in the business community that communism might work. It might deliver a better life to workers.  There was competition in ideology, and capitalism had to provide an increasing standard of living or risk countries going communist. Communism never did deliver a better standard of living, but the presence of a competing system which more or less worked kept capitalism honest.With the demise of the USSR, and China moving away from its strict communist roots, the competition disappeared. Capitalism became a monopoly. Then it started acting like one. There was no longer any need to deliver a better life to workers.That's how we got here.