I will never understand how today's industry productivity is the highest it has ever been, yet workers wages/purchasing power hasn't followed, it even got reduced. What the heck is going on?
This is why when economists say wages are linked to productivity it is true, but only in the same way my cars theoretical top speed limited to the speed of light...
Additionally, the standing of unions went down over time, as a combination of legitimate unions-gone-rogue scandals, anti-union legislation being enacted and union-protection enforcement being reduced.
The result was that the capitalist owner and leadership class enjoyed absurd amounts of net worth gains, and the worker class was left unemployed or with stagnating wages at best. To prove that: CEO payments exploded 940% since 1978, S&P went up 707%, while average worker pay went up only 12% [1] in the same time frame.
Workers are not greedy for simply needing enough money to rent or own a home! In the same time frame, average US-wide rent has gone up from ~200$ to 1100$ [1] - that's a 450% increase. In "hot" areas such as SF, the development has been even worse [2]. On top of that, other necessities of life such as groceries have also continuously gotten more and more expensive [3], not to mention more expensive to obtain as neighborhood grocery stores closed down in favor of large malls.
We're talking about bare survival here. The costs of living have exploded for decades, while wages have been stagnant. People couldn't set aside money as a result, and now we have over half the US population unable to cover a 1000$ emergency without going into (even more) debt [4]. Wanting more money is not greed in these conditions.
[1] https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/average-rent-by-yea...
[2] https://medium.com/@mccannatron/1979-to-2015-average-rent-in...
[3] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/average-pric...
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/56percent-of-americans-cant-...
Try reading with your eyes, not your ideology.
Stand alone, with no gun to its head, capitalism auto decays into the neo-feudalism of the guilded age. And alot of the gullible citizenry supported this return to nothing.
As productivity has increased, so has availability of credit. Servicing debt is soaking up our increased productivity. I don't think it's just a coincidence that the FIRE sector has grown so spectacularly.
We should always remember: If a company could, they would have free labour. Expert professional volunteers. That's how a company can maximize their profits. So every single year, every company is, unless forced by laws, wage competition (from other companies) or by force (unions), behind rationalizations, pushing for, unconsciously, getting close to that ideal of free labor.
Also remember that today, free labour has a limit. They can't really pay zero, because people have mortgages, etc. So actually, the modern "zero" is when the workers have zero profit, ie, savings, or even go into constant debt, and have the government pay for it with subsidies.
And this is exactly what we've been seeing the last decades.
Additionally, widespread and unchecked propaganda has brainwashed the public into believing that unions are bad and that the most evil word you can say in public is "socialism".