Doctors are a government-subsidized cartel! (In most places) They fix the number of Doctors, and, the government usually provides substantial support for educa

Doctors are a government-subsidized cartel! (In most places) They fix the number of Doctors, and, the government usually provides substantial support for education and training. So not a very good example! But it's moot - on the 'low end' of wages, basically 40% of the population, people have 0 bargaining power - it's always been like that. The 'free market' minimum wage would be ~2$ an hour. People would be living in favelas without electricity (or it would be stolen), no healthcare, no car, borderline subsistence living. An entire economy would pop up around that - instead of the 'Dollar store' you'd have the '25 cent' store. Which is why every advanced nation has minimum wage laws. The question is though - how much of the 'productivity gains' are from better labour in any ways? Say for example a company hums along, and in an era of globalization is able to sell 5x more product, yielding really great surpluses. So the investors and execs start to get rich, the staffers get paid the same relatively speaking to inflation, their boat is possibly not lifted but stays the same. They are doing the same work, with the same skills etc.. That's more likely what is happening - labour used to be a commodity, but it's even more of a commodity now. There are no easy solutions but minimum wage should possibly be hire, the jobs that can't be done at that price should go to Mexico to help that economy develop so they can be purchasers of American exports. Something like that.