>>You're talking about the freedom of a wheelchair-bound person to climb any set of stairs they like, whereas I'm talking about the existence of ramps. But the

>>You're talking about the freedom of a wheelchair-bound person to climb any set of stairs they like, whereas I'm talking about the existence of ramps. But the analogy fails given the example I provided. As I demonstrated, even in the 19th century, when transportation options were far more limited, the typical worker in a company town possessed effective mobility, which gave them the power to reject the work being offered in the company town in favor of a better offer in a different locale. >>So where is the bargaining power of Amazon's workers right now? How does the situation of Amazon's workers contradict what I said about bargaining power for workers rising when companies see their productivity and revenue rise? The fact that they are paid more than minimum wage proves they have bargaining power. Amazon is forced, by virtue of the other opportunities offered to these workers by other employers, to pay more than minimum wage. If the US economy saw further productivity growth, and with it revenue growth for its companies, then wages would rise further as well. >>At the bottom, real wages have fallen. [1] As a result, purchasing power for 90% of USA population has stayed the same since the late 1970s, while for the top 10% it has significantly increased. [2] EPI is heavily funded by public sector unions, which are rent-seeking institutions who extract wealth through involuntary wealth transfers. The statistics they provide are based on using a different standard for inflation when measuring productivity, than when measuring labor compensation: https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/sources-of-real-wage-stagnation/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/sources-of-real-wage-stag... For years, I trotted out the same graph you're linking to, in debates on the internet, until I found out that the apparent divergence between wages and per capita GDP was actually just statistical manipulation. As you say: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics."