

My Remarkable, Famous Graph - thekguy
http://blog.trailmeme.com/2010/07/my-remarkable-famous-graph/

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microtherion
According to the 1800 US Census, 17% of the US population back then were
slaves. This seems rather hard to square with a graph claiming that more than
80% of the labor force were "free agents".

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vgr
I think Morgan's figures may have excluded slaves. They weren't paid a
paycheck either, so they fall in neither category.

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microtherion
Yes, I was suspecting that the underlying data excluded slaves. Not sure I buy
the "paycheck" argument --- presumably in the less tamed regions of the US,
there were plenty of other people who hardly ever handled money.

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marze
Driven in part by soaring health care costs for full-time employees.

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vgr
That's one of the drivers, certainly, but there's many more forces. Check out
Dan Pink's "Free Agent Nation" for more. It's a few years old by now, but
still the best view of the overall trend.

