[expat_panama]

 imf.org;   "the average real wage in the United States (that is, the average wage adjusted for inflation) has grown only slowly since the early 1970s"

I was about to call the IMF a bunch of idiots-- but whether they are or not, the line you quoted was from a study made almost ten years ago by these guys:  ------------->

In context,  the idiots the economists were talking about unskilled workers.  It's true (sort of); even my graph in post 119 shows how bottom quintile wages seemed to be flat from the mid '70's to the mid '90's. 

Then again, right after they made the study, real unskilled worker wages shot up by about ten percent but no matter.   The fact is by then most of those unskilled workers of the '70's had become the skilled workers of the '90's.

[SandyB]

The fact is by then most of those unskilled workers of the '70's had become the skilled workers of the '90's.

The skilled workers of the 90's, computer engineers, programmers, engineers, etc are now working at McDonalds. The United States doesnt even make things that require skilled labor anymore, eg, televisions, radios, electronics, computers, etc. IBM personal computers are chinese owned, and the chips for all the other computers come from asia.