In contemporary America, forces driving structural-demographic dynamics are much more complex. They include internal population growth, immigration, globalization, increased labor participation by women, and changing cultural attitudes (which I proxied by real minimum wage). The end result, however, was the same in all three cases—agrarian England, the industrializing United States, and post-industrial America. A growing gap between labor supply and labor demand led to falling relative wages. This was then followed by elite overproduction, intraelite competition and conflict, and increasing
...more
