The inability of unions to achieve real, widespread raises : wage rates—to raise the standard of living generally—is i part obscured by the phenomenon of inflation. As a cons quence of the government’s policy of deficit spending at credit expansion, the purchasing power of the monetary uni the dollar, has diminished drastically across the years. Nom nal wage rates have increased considerably more than re wage rates, that is, wages measured in terms of actual pu chasing power.
What has further served to obscure this issue is the fa that real wage rates have risen considerably since the start ( the century. In spite of destructive and increasing goven mental restraints on the freedom of production and trad major advances in science, technology, and capital accumul tion have been made and have raised the general standard