This chart has been shared into my Facebook feed twice in the past week. The chart looks very convincing – and typical of effective propaganda, it is very convincing because most people fail to engage their rational System 2 thinking.

This video takes a part this fake comparison.

The key to this bit of propaganda is in the foot note that says it charts production/nonsupervisory workers – in the private sector – versus the net productivity of the total economy.

Right away your bull shit detector should go off! The chart is comparing a subset of the labor force to the output of the total economy. Right off the bat you should be seeing that this is cherry picking to make a point.

When the entire labor force is included, the compensation versus productivity lines are essentially identical.