> when one cobsiders the effects of inflation alone, which is hard, because its never the only real factor To me, that's the real thing I think it missing from

> when one cobsiders the effects of inflation alone, which is hard, because its never the only real factor To me, that's the real thing I think it missing from a lot of the discussions going on here. There are so many things that go into these as inputs, and over this time period, so many large global changes. It's hard for me to take some of the claimed causal relationships at face value without even lip service to some of those other things (globalization, increase in population but unevenly, social upheavals, etc). > and (absent pushes like minimum wage increases) may entirely not occur in some segments. Yeah, I don't expect it to be simple. In fact, the assumption that it's not simple is why I'm having trouble accepting some of the direct claims presented as they have been so far (which is without much analysis of additional factors).