You are correct, I over estimated the amount of union workers in the 70’s, but they are only about 12% of workers today so their impact has been far diminished, and it was the Owners equivalent rent that was the biggest factor in keeping CPI much higher in the 70’s, it would have been close to 10% inflation if we were still including the cost to buy homes in the 2000’s and that would have forced the fed’s to both raise minimum wage much faster and also keep interest rates much higher during that period.
