The US was never a low-wage economy. Sure, there was crippling poverty in places, like the Dust Bowl, but labor has always been the bottleneck in a nation richl

The US was never a low-wage economy. Sure, there was crippling poverty in places, like the Dust Bowl, but labor has always been the bottleneck in a nation richly endowed with natural resources, which is why American logging practices are much more wasteful than European ones, they are designed to maximize the productivity of the workforce. When the International Watch Company was set up, it was by an American looking for cheap labor in Switzerland.