(Roughly) Daily

Since 1979, inflation-adjusted hourly pay is up just 3.41 percent for the middle 20 percent of Americans while labor’s overall share of national income has declined sharply since the early 2000s. There are lots of possible explanations for why this is, from long-term factors like the rise of automation and decline of organized labor, to short-term ones, such as the lingering weakness in the job market left over from the great recession. But a recent study by a group of labor economists introduces an interesting theory into the mix: Workers’ pay may be lagging because the U.S. is suffering from a shortage of employers… its authors argue that the labor market may be plagued by what economists call a monopsony problem, where a lack of competition among employers gives businesses outsize power over workers, including the ability to tamp down on pay. If the researchers are right, it could have important implications for how we think about antitrust, unions, and the minimum wage…

… not to mention anti-trust laws.  The full story at: “Why Is It So Hard for Americans to Get a Decent Raise?”

* George Bernard Shaw

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As we concentrate on concentration, we might spare a thought for Charles Erskine Scott (C. E. S.) Wood; he died on this date in 1944.  An author, civil liberties advocate, artist, soldier, attorney, and Georgist, he is best known as the author of the 1927 satirical bestseller, Heavenly Discourse.

Wood settled in Oregon, where he defended Native American causes, represented dissidents such as Emma Goldman and wrote articles for radical journals such as Liberty, The Masses, and Mother Earth.  His friends included Chief Joseph, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Ansel Adams, Robinson Jeffers, Clarence Darrow, Childe Hassam, Margaret Sanger and John Steinbeck.  His daughter, Nan Wood Honeyman, was Oregon’s first U. S. congresswoman.

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