America's Great Depression
Similarly, the designation of the 1920s as a period of inflationary boom may trouble those who think of inflation as a rise in prices. Prices generally remained stable and even fell slightly over the period. But we must realize that two great forces were at work on prices during the 1920s—the monetary inflation which propelled prices upward and the increase in productivity which lowered costs and prices. In a purely free-market society, increasing productivity will increase the supply of goods and lower costs and prices, spreading the fruits of a higher standard of living to all consumers. But this tendency was offset by the monetary inflation which served to stabilize prices. Such stabilization was and is a goal desired by many, but it (a) prevented the fruits of a higher standard of living from being diffused as widely as it would have been in a free market; and (b) generated the boom and depression of the business cycle. For a hallmark of the inflationary boom is that prices are higher than they would have been in a free and unhampered market. Once again, statistics cannot discover the causal process at work. http://www.mises.org/rothbard/agd/contents.asp In a purely free-market society, increasing productivity will increase the supply of goods and lower costs and prices, spreading the fruits of a higher standard of living to all consumers Rather interesting concept when the computer revolution is taken into consideration. Where did the advances in productivity go that have happened over the last say 20 years ? Not just labor savings in offices, also trucking is more productive moving more tonage per driver per year than ever. ok people have a cell phone and a computer an 200 TV stations full of infomercials, yet many of them are working more hours for the stuff and the average household works more hours. Look no further than expansion of government which has wasted the gains and given the poplutation little in return except the people working for the government borg.

http://www.mises.org/rothbard/agd/chapter2.asp#wage_rates Wage Rates and Unemployment is rather interesting. Today we have massive interferance in the supply and demand of labor by the government and a highly mobil labor force with a gold rush mentality. Jobs in Montana and a million people are headed that way or government pumping money into highway construction and job training causes large shifts in the supply and demand.