05-08-2020, 01:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-08-2020, 01:33 PM by Eric the Green.)
Ha ha. It is obvious that the trend exploded with Reagan. The gas-shortage recession led to downturns after 1973, but wages were at least recovering if less quickly than productivity under Nixon-Ford. Then along comes Reagan and the gap widens. Compensation, as the graph shows, made very modest recoveries under the moderate "new" Democrats (non-FDR/LBJ Democrats) Carter, Clinton and Obama, despite furious Republican opposition and obstruction, but under Republicans it actually declined or went nowhere. The gap widened particularly as the 3T got going in Reagan's second term, after he won by a landslide and soon after the early 1980s recession ended.