Labor is a small component of most retail prices. Labor has been undervalued in the USA for decades. Labor could double and prices for DURABLE mass produced goods, food and services like retail/restaurants would not budge up much.
Re: 15 - And there’s research that stringy suggests that your point is correct.
Check out this table: Figure 2. All-worker labor share, employee-only labor share, and proprietors’ total income share, first quarter 1947 through third quarter 2016 (in percent
On this web page: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/estimating-the-us-labor-share.htm
The all-labor component of total cost has dropped from approx. 66% to 56% over the past 70 years.
I agree with you that labor has been somewhat screwed on average, but that varies by sector—and there is room for an approximately 20% increase, maybe a bit more, but not 100%.
Surely it varies by industry, but every financial statement I have ever reviewed — as a business owner, prospective business owner, and board member — has shown labor costs as the single largest item on the expense side of the ledger.
Labor in the US is fungible. High labor costs can be outsourced to China and other places outside the US. Energy costs are the primary drivers of inflation.