"Squinting at the data, it looks like the average rate of growth is about the same immediately before and after the 1970s; if anything the rate of growth is a t

"Squinting at the data, it looks like the average rate of growth is about the same immediately before and after the 1970s; if anything the rate of growth is a tiny bit higher since then." Look at actual wages, which stopped increasing in the early 1970s. http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2009/9/13/saupload_us_census_burea_median_income.png http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2009/9/13/saupload_us... (This shows household income, which is slightly increasing, but only because more women are in the workforce now than in 1970; personal income is stagnant.)