If you have had the feeling that Americans are stressed out, working harder and earning less, or if you disagree with these notions, you might find these links valuable:
Economist Richard Wolff talks about Americans working WAY harder, and earning the same or less since 1978. If you don't want to watch the whole video, then I suggest zooming up to about 22:00, where Wolff gets into the American economy working well (for most) from the late 1940's until 1978--but not since. He talks about what the drop in compensation has meant to people: less time away from work, more stress, more divorces, more "fast-food", poorer health, more medications, etc. (For this segment, zoom to 22:00 - 35:00.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY
FYI: I think American capitalism needs to be heavily regulated, not abandoned; and I don't know what Wolff thinks about this, because as he goes on, he doesn't actually get to that subject, at least not specifically. His analysis of workers' reality, however, seems to me to be right on target, and has been very helpful to my thinking.
Wolff does talk about other models of business that may be preferable to the dominant American workplace model, and his ideas here are extremely interesting; but again, he's not exactly clear about how or whether these models would replace "capitalism" writ large. I find this avoidance fairly common among those who condemn capitalism generally; I also find it somewhat annoying, since key questions remain. For example: Can any companies or corporate investment practices be smart, sustainable, and fair to workers, consumers and the public? Can individuals and entities like pension funds participate--and earn money--in our economy by helping businesses grow in such a responsible manner?
--For some hard data (a reference text) on productivity vs. wages, etc, here's a page with some helpful graphs. (It also includes a few very busy, confusing graphs--you'll know 'em when you see 'em--which I suggest SKIPPING!) Mother Jones is known as a liberal-progressive enterprise, but I find them to be highly credible and responsible journalists--please let me know, and provide examples and explanations, if you find otherwise:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts
--BTW, the NY Times has reported on similar data, even before the $#!% hit the fan in 2008. Witness this report from the summer of 2006:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/28wages.html?pagewanted=all
